Hexagram 44

Gòu

Coming to Meet

Upper Trigram

Qián

HeavenCreative

ElementMetalDirectionSouthFamilyFatherQualitiescreative, strong, dynamic

Lower Trigram

Xùn

WindGentle

ElementWoodDirectionSoutheastFamilyEldest DaughterQualitiesgentle, penetrating, persistent

Classical Texts

The Judgment

女壯。勿用取女。

The Image

天下有風,姤。后以施命誥四方。

The Lines

Line 1

初六 繫于金柅。貞吉。有攸往。見凶。羸豕孚蹢躅。

Line 2

九二 包有魚。无咎。不利賓。

Line 3

九三 臀无膚。其行次且。厲。无大咎。

Line 4

九四 包无魚。起凶。

Line 5

九五 以杞包瓜。含章。有隕自天。

Line 6

上九 姤其角。吝。无咎。

Supper at Emmaus

Supper at Emmaus

Caravaggio, 1601

Coming to Meet

A tavern outside Jerusalem, evening light through the window. Caravaggio freezes the instant when two disciples suddenly recognize their dinner companion—the risen Christ, three days dead, now breaking bread before them. One man throws his arms wide in shock, the other grips his chair as if to rise. Christ sits calmly in the center, the innkeeper watches uncomprehending. The 1601 painting captures the moment before recognition becomes belief, when the hidden reveals itself.

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Caravaggio depicts the biblical moment when two disciples suddenly recognize the risen Christ at dinner, three days after crucifixion. Their dramatic gestures capture the instant of unexpected recognition. The painting shows how something hidden or unnoticed (the divine in human form) suddenly comes to meet us, relating to hexagram 44's theme of coming to meet. This is Gòu (姤), Coming to Meet, a hexagram that describes unexpected encounter with what was concealed. The character suggests meeting or coupling, often with connotations of surprise or temptation. The trigram structure places Heaven (Qián) above Wind (Xùn): creative force meeting subtle penetration, something powerful approaching from below. In divination practice, ancient texts associated this hexagram with the summer solstice, when the first yin line returns after maximum yang—a small dark force beginning to infiltrate the light. Caravaggio's chiaroscuro technique embodies this meeting of opposites: divine presence clothed in human ordinariness, the sacred emerging within the mundane inn. The Judgment text warns: "Coming to Meet. The maiden is powerful. One should not marry such a maiden." The text uses the metaphor of an assertive young woman approaching unbidden—something that comes to meet you rather than you seeking it. The counsel advises caution with what arrives unexpectedly, what presents itself uninvited. At Emmaus, the disciples encounter what they neither sought nor expected—death reversed, the impossible made present. Their dramatic gestures capture the shock of such a meeting. Zhou Dynasty diviners saw this hexagram when hidden enemies revealed themselves, when concealed problems surfaced, when what seemed gone returned unexpectedly. The hexagram addresses recognition more than the thing recognized—the moment when you suddenly see what was there all along. The Image Text observes: "Under heaven, wind: the image of Coming to Meet. Thus does the prince act when disseminating his commands and proclaiming them to the four quarters of heaven." Wind moves beneath the sky, reaching everywhere yet remaining invisible until it stirs what it touches. Caravaggio's Christ sits in ordinary human form, his divine nature invisible until the gesture of breaking bread triggers recognition. In the I-Ching sequence, Gòu follows Guài (breakthrough): after the decisive confrontation comes the unexpected encounter, what emerges in the aftermath. The disciples walk with their companion for hours before the breaking of bread reveals who walks beside them—coming to meet describes this delay between presence and recognition, the moment when hidden reality suddenly declares itself.

Yilin: Forest of Changes

From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 44 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.

Yilin artwork for Hexagram 44
河伯大呼,津不可渡。往復爾故,乃无大悔。

The River Lord cries out in warning; the ford cannot be crossed. Going and returning to one's former way; thus there is no great regret.

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Wind beneath heaven doubles upon itself — Gou encountering Gou. The Earl of the River bellows a great cry: the ford cannot be crossed! One goes back and forth, retracing old paths, and thereby avoids great regret. The river god Hebo's warning halts forward movement, and the traveler wisely retreats to familiar ground rather than forcing a dangerous crossing. When the same hexagram meets itself, the pattern reinforces rather than transforms: the encounter remains an encounter, permanently suspended. From Coming to Meet to Coming to Meet, the yin line that entered from below neither advances nor retreats but dwells at the threshold, eternally arriving, never fully arrived.

中文注释

天下有風,風遇風,姤之又姤。河伯大呼——河神放聲高喊:「津不可渡!」渡口不可通行。「往復爾故」——來回走老路,退回原處;「乃無大悔」——因此免於大的悔恨。河伯之警告阻止了強行渡河,旅人明智地退返熟悉之途。姤遇姤,同卦相疊,格局自我強化而不轉化:遇合永遠停留在遇合的狀態,既不深入亦不消退。一陰初入之勢既不進亦不退,永恆地停在門檻上——永遠在到來,從未真正抵達。