Upper Trigram
離 Lí
Fire — Clinging
Lower Trigram
兌 Duì
Lake — Joyous
Classical Texts
The Judgment
In small matters, good fortune. When people live in opposition and estrangement, they cannot undertake great things together—their views diverge too widely. Don't proceed brusquely; limit yourself to gradual effects in small matters. Opposition doesn't preclude all agreement. Polarity within a comprehensive whole has useful functions. Heaven and earth, man and woman—opposites that, reconciled, bring creation.
The Lines
Line 1
Remorse disappears. If you lose your horse, don't run after it—it returns by itself. Someone temporarily estranged through misunderstanding returns if left alone. When evil people attach through misunderstanding, simply endure them. They withdraw eventually. Don't force it.
Line 2
Meeting your lord in a narrow street. No blame. Misunderstandings make proper meetings impossible. An accidental, informal encounter serves the purpose when inner affinity exists.
Line 3
The wagon dragged back, oxen halted, a man's hair and nose cut off. Everything conspires against you. Despite the opposition, cleave to the one you know you belong with. Bad beginning, good end.
Line 4
Isolated through opposition. You meet a like-minded person you can trust completely. Despite the danger, no blame. Will achieves its aim; you become free of faults through this true connection.
Line 5
Remorse disappears. The companion bites through the wrappings. Going to him—how could it be a mistake? You fail to recognize a sincere person because of general estrangement. When they reveal their true character, go to meet them.
Line 6
Isolated through opposition, you see your companion as a pig covered with dirt, a wagon full of devils. First drawing a bow, then laying it aside. Not a robber—he will woo at the right time. As you go, rain falls, then good fortune. Misunderstanding reaches climax and reverses. Tension dissolves like rain after a thunderstorm.
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.
Read full commentary ↓
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)