EN (English)
䷐
Hexagram 17 of 64
Following
隨 · Suí
Thunder settled inside the lake, the arousing force taking a lower place than the joyous one. The hexagram is about following, and about the discrimination it requires.
following
adaptation
allegiance
rest
- King Wen number
- 17 of 64
- Above
- ☱ Duì · Lake
- Below
- ☳ Zhèn · Thunder
- Composition
- Lake over Thunder
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · broken · broken · solid · solid · broken
- Chinese
- 隨 · Suí
The Judgment
The source. It gets through. It rewards holding to the course. No blame.
Following gets the book's four great words, which is striking. Adapting to circumstance is treated as a full virtue rather than a concession.
The Image
Thunder inside the lake: Following. So at nightfall the noble person goes indoors to rest.
The first application is to yourself. Following the day's own rhythm, and stopping when it stops, is where the practice starts.
What it means
Sui reverses the usual arrangement: thunder, which moves, sits below the lake, which is pleasant and still. The stronger element has taken the lower place, and the classic makes that the definition of following well. You adapt by putting yourself under something, and you had better have chosen it deliberately.
Two adjacent lines make the choice concrete. Cling to the boy and lose the strong man; cling to the strong man and lose the boy. Neither is condemned, and both note the cost. Any real allegiance excludes another, and the classic wants that understood rather than avoided.
The fifth line supplies the standard: sincerity toward what is excellent. Following is safe when the thing being followed deserves it, and the hexagram offers no other protection.
There is also a warning aimed at the person being followed. The fourth line has someone accumulating a following of their own, and calls steadfastness in that condition unfortunate. Gathering loyalty is only clean when the motive is out in the open.
The Image, characteristically, starts small: when the light goes, go in and rest.
In a reading
Following as an answer says the useful move is to adapt rather than lead. Go along with the current shape of things, and let someone or something else set the direction for now.
The question it puts back to you is what you are following. Choose deliberately, accept that the choice closes other doors, and check that the thing is worth the allegiance. If you are the one being followed, the fourth line applies: be explicit about what you want.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Six at the top
He is held fast and then bound. The king makes his offering on the western mountain.
Allegiance so complete it looks like captivity, transfigured into devotion by the offering.
-
Nine in the fifth place
Sincere toward what is excellent. Good fortune.
The ruling line, and the hexagram's whole criterion. Follow the good thing, not the convenient one.
-
Nine in the fourth place
Following brings a catch. Steadfastness brings misfortune. Sincere on the way, and clear about it: what blame?
Gathering a following of your own. The danger is accumulating loyalty for its own sake; the remedy is transparency about your motives.
-
Six in the third place
Clinging to the strong man, one loses the boy. Following gets you what you seek. It helps to stay steady where you are.
The same choice made the other way. It works, and the text still notes the loss, because every allegiance forecloses one.
-
Six in the second place
Clinging to the boy, one loses the strong man.
Attaching to the smaller thing costs you the larger. The classic states it without softening.
-
Nine at the beginning
The standard changes. Steadfastness brings good fortune. Go out of the door and mix with others, and something is achieved.
What you were aligned to has shifted. The line says go out and meet people rather than sit with the change alone.
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