SIX LINES
Dance at Moulin de la Galette
䷏

Hexagram 16

豫

Yù

Enthusiasm

Dance at Moulin de la Galette — Renoir, 1876

Sunlight filters through chestnut leaves onto dancing couples crowding the Moulin de la Galette's outdoor garden. Renoir painted this Sunday afternoon in Montmartre in 1876, capturing Parisians gathered for music, wine, and movement. The accordion player sits at right, providing rhythm. The dancers spin through dappled light, their faces flushed, their bodies pressed close in the whirl of the waltz. No formal occasion demanded this assembly—just the weekend, just the weather, just the accordion's invitation to dance. People came because the music moved them, because enthusiasm spreads like sunlight through leaves, because joy calls and bodies answer.

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This is Yù (豫), the Chinese hexagram meaning "enthusiasm" or "harmony." Ancient diviners saw this configuration when Thunder (Zhèn) sits above Earth (Kūn): arousing movement above, receptive stillness below, like music that moves people to dance, like rhythm that enters the body and becomes motion. The Moulin's crowd embodies this responsive harmony—individuals hearing the same beat, bodies finding the same tempo, separate people becoming one flowing pattern. In Zhou Dynasty court practice, this hexagram appeared when music accompanied ritual, when armies marched in coordinated formation, when collective action emerged not from command but from shared feeling that aligned individual impulses toward common purpose. Renoir's Impressionist painting captures a Sunday afternoon dance in Montmartre, with crowds enjoying music and movement in dappled sunlight. The spontaneous gathering for shared celebration connects to hexagram 16's theme of enthusiasm and harmonious response. The Judgment text describes enthusiasm's organizing power: "It furthers one to install helpers and to set armies marching." Not through coercion but through harmony that makes people want to move together. Renoir's dancers need no instruction—the music provides direction, their enthusiasm provides energy, and the pattern emerges organically. The painting shows working-class Parisians alongside artists and bohemians, class distinctions temporarily dissolved in shared movement. Tang Dynasty generals understood this hexagram as the moment when troops fought with unified spirit, when musicians played in perfect ensemble, when the group achieved flow state where individual and collective intention merged. The Image Text explains how enthusiasm manifests: "Thunder comes resounding out of the earth: the image of enthusiasm. Thus the ancient kings made music in order to honor merit, and offered it with splendor to the Supreme Deity, inviting their ancestors to be present." Movement and music create sacred space. Renoir treats this common dance hall with the same reverent attention Renaissance painters gave to religious scenes—the light becomes divine, the dancers become celebrants, the ordinary afternoon transforms into something worthy of preservation. In the I-Ching's sequence, Yù follows Modesty: when humility creates stable ground, enthusiasm can safely arise. The next hexagram is Following—what begins as spontaneous joy becomes structured movement, what starts as dance becomes direction. But first this Sunday afternoon, this accordion, this light through leaves.

Upper Trigram

☳

震 Zhèn

Thunder — Arousing

ElementWoodDirectionNorthwestFamilyEldest SonQualitiesarousing, movement, shocking

Lower Trigram

☷

坤 Kūn

Earth — Receptive

ElementEarthDirectionNorthFamilyMotherQualitiesreceptive, yielding, nurturing

Classical Texts

The Judgment

Enthusiasm. It furthers one to install helpers and set armies marching. The time is right because an eminent person acts in harmony with the spirit of the people. Energy rises and finds direction.

The Lines

Line 1

Enthusiasm that expresses itself. Misfortune. Enthusiasm that announces itself—showing off, calling attention—this brings bad results. Display undercuts the power.

Line 2

Firm as stone. Not waiting till the end of the day. Perseverance brings good fortune. Knowing when to stop before excess—recognizing limits early. This grounded awareness is correct.

Line 3

Looking upward for enthusiasm brings regret. Delay brings regret. Looking elsewhere for what must come from within—or hesitating when the moment requires action. Either way, regret.

Line 4

The source of enthusiasm. Great achievement. No doubt—friends gather like hair clasped in a pin. You are the origin of the energy. Others collect around you naturally. Doubt has no place here.

Line 5

Persistently ill, yet never dies. Pressure sustained indefinitely—somehow surviving without thriving. The enthusiasm meets constant resistance but endures.

Line 6

Deluded enthusiasm. But if it changes after completion, no blame. Enthusiasm based on illusion—yet if realization comes after the action, no blame remains. You can learn from completed mistakes.

Yilin: Forest of Changes

From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 16 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.

Yilin artwork for Hexagram 16
冰將泮散，鳴雁噰噰；丁男長女，可以會同。生育聖人。

Ice is about to melt and scatter; geese honk in harmonious chorus. Grown men and elder daughters may now come together. They shall give birth to a sage.

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Thunder surges from the earth as ice begins to thaw and migrating geese cry out in chorus. Young men and women may now gather together freely, and a sage shall be born. The verse celebrates the return of spring: frozen stillness gives way to movement, birdsong fills the air, and the social and biological cycles resume. The honking geese signal the season of courtship and assembly. From Enthusiasm to Enthusiasm — the hexagram returns to itself, and appropriately the verse captures the purest expression of its nature: communal joy, fertile union, cosmic renewal. When the pattern holds steady, its inherent energy simply manifests as what it always was — the earth trembling with new life.

中文注释

雷出地奮，豫之本體。冰將泮散，春回大地；鳴雁噰噰，候鳥歸來。丁男長女可以會同——春社之禮，男女相遇。生育聖人——至善之兆。此為豫卦自變之辭，故表達其最純粹之本質：雷出地奮，先王作樂崇德。冰消雁鳴為春之序曲，人倫相會為禮之根本，聖人之生為天地之大慶。卦體不變，則能量自然呈現為其本來面目——大地震動，萬物新生。

Transformations

Hexagram 16 transforming into each of the 64 hexagrams, with Yilin verses.

䷀1䷁2䷂3䷃4䷄5䷅6䷆7䷇8䷈9䷉10䷊11䷋12䷌13䷍14䷎15䷏16䷐17䷑18䷒19䷓20䷔21䷕22䷖23䷗24䷘25䷙26䷚27䷛28䷜29䷝30䷞31䷟32䷠33䷡34䷢35䷣36䷤37䷥38䷦39䷧40䷨41䷩42䷪43䷫44䷬45䷭46䷮47䷯48䷰49䷱50䷲51䷳52䷴53䷵54䷶55䷷56䷸57䷹58䷺59䷻60䷼61䷽62䷾63䷿64

Related Hexagrams

Same upper trigram: Thunder (震)

䷟恆Duration䷡大壯Great Power䷧解Deliverance䷲震The Arousing Thunder䷵歸妹The Marrying Maiden䷶豐Abundance

Same lower trigram: Earth (坤)

䷁坤The Receptive䷇比Holding Together䷋否Standstill䷓觀Contemplation䷢晉Progress䷬萃Gathering Together
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