Upper Trigram
震 Zhèn
Thunder — Arousing
Lower Trigram
兌 Duì
Lake — Joyous
Classical Texts
The Judgment
Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further. A girl taken into the family but not as the chief wife must behave with special caution and reserve. She must not take it upon herself to supplant the mistress of the house—that would mean disorder and untenable relationships. While legally regulated relationships evince a fixed connection between duties and rights, relationships based on personal inclination depend entirely on tactful reserve. Affection as the principle of relatedness is of the greatest importance in all relationships.
The Lines
Line 1
The marrying maiden as a concubine. A lame man who is able to tread. Undertakings bring good fortune. A girl entering a family with the consent of the wife will not rank outwardly as her equal but will withdraw modestly into the background. If she understands how to fit herself into the pattern of things, her position will be entirely satisfactory. Though hampered by this status, as if lame, she can nevertheless accomplish something through kindliness of nature.
Line 2
A one-eyed man who is able to see. The perseverance of a solitary one furthers. A girl married to a man who has disappointed her. Man and wife ought to work together like a pair of eyes. Here the girl is left behind in loneliness; the man of her choice has become unfaithful or has died. But she does not lose the inner light of loyalty. Though the other eye is gone, she maintains her loyalty even in loneliness.
Line 3
The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine. A girl in a lowly position who finds no husband may still win shelter as a concubine. This pictures a person who longs too much for joys that cannot be obtained in the usual way. They enter a situation not altogether compatible with self-esteem. Neither judgment nor warning—merely laying bare the actual situation for everyone to draw a lesson.
Line 4
The marrying maiden draws out the allotted time. A late marriage comes in due course. The girl is virtuous. She does not wish to throw herself away and allows the customary time for marriage to slip by. There is no harm in this; she is rewarded for her purity and, even though belatedly, finds the husband intended for her.
Line 5
The sovereign I gave his daughter in marriage. The embroidered garments of the princess were not as gorgeous as those of the serving maid. The moon that is nearly full brings good fortune. A girl of aristocratic birth who marries a man of modest circumstances and understands how to adapt with grace. Free of vanity of outer adornment, forgetting her rank, she takes a place below her husband, just as the moon before it is quite full does not directly face the sun.
Line 6
The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it. The man stabs the sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing that acts to further. The ritual is only superficially fulfilled—an empty basket, a sheep already dead. Solely to preserve forms. This impious, irreverent attitude bodes no good for a marriage.
Yilin: Forest of Changes
From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 54 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.
堅冰黃裳，鳥哀悲愁。不見白粒，但覩藜蒿。數驚鷙鳥，為我心憂。
Hard ice and yellow earth; the bird mourns in sorrow. No white grain to be seen, only goosefoot and wormwood. Startled again and again by birds of prey; this weighs upon my heart.
Read full commentary ↓
Thunder over lake returns to itself: the Marrying Maiden unchanged, its pattern intensified. Hard ice and yellow garments; birds cry in sorrow. No white grain is visible, only goosefoot and mugwort. Raptors startle repeatedly, becoming a constant worry. The verse is bleak beyond measure: winter ice, mourning birds, famine food replacing grain, and predators circling overhead. When the hexagram transforms into itself, there is no movement, no escape, no resolution. The maiden's subordinate position deepens into permanence. The yellow garment evokes the Kun hexagram's line-six warning, while the ice recalls the hexagram's opening: 'Treading on frost, solid ice will come.' From the Marrying Maiden to itself, the pattern locks into place without relief.
中文注释
澤上有雷為歸妹，歸妹之歸妹。堅冰黃裳，鳥哀悲愁；不見白粒，但覩藜蒿；數驚鷙鳥，為我心憂。冰封大地，黃裳喪色，哀鳥悲鳴。五穀不見，唯藜蒿充飢。猛禽頻驚，令人憂懼。歸妹之歸妹，無變無動，困局自我強化。黃裳呼應坤卦上六之象，堅冰則暗引初六「履霜堅冰至」之警。當卦變回歸自身，無出路、無轉機，歸妹「永終知敝」之訓化為切膚之痛。
Related Hexagrams
Same upper trigram: Thunder (震)
Same lower trigram: Lake (兌)