Hexagram 38
睽
Kuí
Opposition
Upper Trigram
離 Lí
Fire — Clinging
Lower Trigram
兌 Duì
Lake — Joyous
Classical Texts
The Judgment
小事吉。
The Image
上火下澤，睽。君子以同而異。
The Lines
Line 1
初九 悔亡。喪馬勿逐自復。見惡人。无咎。
Line 2
九二 遇主于巷。无咎。
Line 3
六三 見輿曳。其牛掣。其人天且劓。无初有終。
Line 4
九四 睽孤。遇元夫。交孚。厲无咎。
Line 5
六五 悔亡。厥宗噬膚。往何咎。
Line 6
上九 睽孤。見豕負塗。載鬼一車。先張之弧。後說之弧。匪寇婚媾。往遇雨則吉。
David Goliath
Caravaggio, Unknown
Opposition
Caravaggio's dramatic canvas shows the young David holding the severed head of Goliath, painted sometime between 1599 and 1607. The boy's face carries no triumph, only troubled contemplation as he gazes at the giant's head—which art historians believe is Caravaggio's self-portrait. Light strikes David from the left while darkness surrounds the scene, emphasizing the stark opposition between youth and age, victor and vanquished, the living and the dead. The painting captures fundamental polarity made flesh: beauty and horror, innocence and experience, the small overcoming the large through means the large cannot anticipate.
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This is Kuí (睽), Opposition. The character depicts two eyes looking in opposite directions, seeing different things. Ancient diviners saw this configuration when Fire (Lí) sits above Lake (Duì)—flames rising upward while water flows down, two forces that cannot merge, that move in contrary directions despite sharing space. Caravaggio's painting embodies this structure: David and Goliath represent opposed principles that cannot reconcile, victor and victim locked in permanent separation despite—or because of—their intimate connection through violence. Caravaggio painted this dramatic work around 1599-1607 showing the young David holding the severed head of Goliath. The stark contrast between youth and giant, victory and defeat, illustrates fundamental opposition. Goliath's face may be a self-portrait, suggesting internal conflict. The Judgment text acknowledges the reality without resolution: "Opposition. In small matters, good fortune." Zhou Dynasty court diviners understood that opposition differs from conflict—it describes forces that naturally diverge rather than forces competing for the same territory. Ancient practitioners noted this hexagram appeared when consultation revealed fundamental incompatibility, when family members held irreconcilable views, when partners discovered their paths led separate directions. The text promises success only in small matters because opposition cannot be overcome through grand gestures or decisive action—only through acknowledging divergence and working within its constraints. The Image Text offers unexpected counsel: "Above, fire; below, the lake: the image of Opposition. Thus amid all fellowship the superior man retains his individuality." The ancient text does not seek to eliminate opposition but to understand its function. In the I-Ching's sequence, Kuí follows Jiā Rén (The Family): after establishing unity within the household, one encounters the external world's fundamental diversity. Caravaggio's self-portrait as the defeated giant suggests a deeper truth—we contain our own oppositions, carry within ourselves the conflicts we encounter without. The painting captures not resolution but recognition, the moment when opposition becomes visible and must be acknowledged rather than denied or destroyed.
Yilin: Forest of Changes
From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 38 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.
倉盈庾億，宜稼黍稷，年歲有息。
Granaries brimming, stores in the billions; fit for planting millet and grain. The year yields its increase.
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Fire above the lake returning to itself — Opposition contemplating its own reflection. Yet the verse describes not discord but abundance: granaries overflow with billions of measures, the land is perfectly suited for millet and grain, and the harvest yields surplus year upon year. When Opposition meets itself, the doubled estrangement paradoxically cancels out: two mirrors facing each other reveal not infinite regression but clarity. The fire-lake tension, confronting its own nature, resolves into the recognition that opposing forces held in stable equilibrium are the very mechanism of agricultural prosperity — sun above, water below, each feeding the other. The same hexagram sustained becomes its own remedy through self-aware balance.
中文注释
上火下澤，睽之自照。睽變睽，對立回歸自身——然詩中非寫乖離，乃寫豐盈。倉盈庾億，糧倉滿溢以億計；宜稼黍稷，土地宜於種植五穀；年歲有息，歲歲豐收而有餘。雙重之睽反而相消：兩面鏡子相對，非無盡後退，乃澄澈自照。火澤之張力面對自身時，領悟到對立之力若保持穩定之均衡，恰為農耕豐收之機制——上有日照、下有水澤，彼此滋養。同卦相疊，以自覺之平衡化解自身之矛盾。
Related Hexagrams
Same upper trigram: Fire (離)
Same lower trigram: Lake (兌)