Upper Trigram
兌 Duì
Lake — Joyous
Lower Trigram
兌 Duì
Lake — Joyous
Classical Texts
The Judgment
Success. Persistence is favorable. True joy rests on firmness and strength within, manifesting outwardly as yielding and gentle. Joy must be based on steadfastness if it is not to degenerate into uncontrolled mirth. Truth and strength must dwell in the heart, while gentleness reveals itself in social intercourse. Intimidation without gentleness may achieve something momentarily, but not for all time. When hearts are won by friendliness, people willingly take all hardships upon themselves.
The Lines
Line 1
Contented joyousness. Good fortune. A quiet, wordless, self-contained joy, desiring nothing from without and resting content with everything, remains free of all egotistic likes and dislikes. In this freedom lies good fortune—the quiet security of a heart fortified within itself.
Line 2
Sincere joyousness. Good fortune. Remorse disappears. We often find ourselves associating with inferior people in whose company we are tempted by inappropriate pleasures. But if you do not permit your will to swerve, not even dubious companions will venture to proffer base pleasures. Thus every cause for regret is removed.
Line 3
Coming joyousness. Misfortune. True joy must spring from within. But if one is empty within and wholly given over to the world, idle pleasures stream in from without. Those who lack inner stability and therefore need amusement will always find opportunity for indulgence. They attract external pleasures by the emptiness of their natures. Thus they lose themselves more and more.
Line 4
Joyousness that is weighed is not at peace. After ridding himself of mistakes, a person has joy. Often one weighs the choice between higher and lower pleasures. As long as the decision is not made, there is no inner peace. Only when you clearly recognize that passion brings suffering can you turn away from lower pleasures and strive for higher. Once this decision is sealed, you find true joy and peace.
Line 5
Sincerity toward disintegrating influences is dangerous. Dangerous elements approach even the best of people. If you permit yourself to have anything to do with them, their disintegrating influence acts slowly but surely, bringing inevitable dangers. But if you recognize the situation and comprehend the danger, you know how to protect yourself and remain unharmed.
Line 6
Seductive joyousness. A vain nature invites diverting pleasures. If unstable within, the pleasures of the world have so powerful an influence that you are swept along by them. Here it is no longer a question of good fortune or misfortune. You have given up direction of your own life, and what becomes of you depends upon chance and external influences.
Yilin: Forest of Changes
From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 58 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.
班馬還師，以息勞疲。後夫嘉喜，入戶見妻。
The dappled horses return with the army, resting from their weary toil. The husband who lagged behind rejoices, entering the door to see his wife.
Read full commentary ↓
Paired lakes mirror each other in perfect symmetry — The Joyous reflecting itself. The army's spotted horses return from campaign to rest their weary bones. Afterward, a husband comes home with joy, entering the door to see his wife. The phrase 'ban ma' (spotted horses) echoes the Shijing where returning warhorses signify the end of a campaign. From The Joyous to The Joyous, the transformation is identity: joy deepened by recognition. Friends lecture and practice together — the hexagram image made flesh. The soldier returns to domestic happiness; the doubled lake produces not excess but resonance. This is joy's purest form: reunion after absence, the familiar face at the threshold.
中文注释
麗澤兌，朋友講習之象。班馬還師，以息勞疲。後夫嘉喜，入戶見妻。班馬即歸師之戰馬。征人歸來，先息軍旅之勞，後入家門得見妻子，歡喜之至。從兌至兌，喜悅映照喜悅。麗澤之象——兩澤相連，互相滋潤。此為歡悅之純粹形態：離別後之重逢，門前見到熟悉之面容。兌之自返不是重複而是共鳴——如兩湖相映，喜悅加倍。
Related Hexagrams
Same upper trigram: Lake (兌)
Same lower trigram: Lake (兌)