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䷥
Hexagram 38 of 64
Opposition
睽 · Kuí
Fire moving up and a lake sinking down, two elements permanently diverging. The hexagram is about estrangement, and it ends with one of the strangest reconciliation scenes in the book.
opposition
misunderstanding
difference
reconciliation
- King Wen number
- 38 of 64
- Above
- ☲ Lí · Fire
- Below
- ☱ Duì · Lake
- Composition
- Fire over Lake
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · solid · broken · solid · broken · solid
- Chinese
- 睽 · Kuí
The Judgment
In small matters, good fortune.
The whole Judgment. Under opposition, large undertakings fail and small ones go through.
The Image
Fire above, the lake below: Opposition. So the noble person stays themselves amid all fellowship.
Difference is treated as something to preserve rather than dissolve. Union without individuality is not the goal.
What it means
Kui puts fire above a lake: one rises, one sinks, and they move apart forever. The hexagram is about estrangement, misunderstanding, and people who cannot be brought into agreement.
The Image refuses the obvious remedy. It does not recommend harmony. The noble person keeps their individuality within fellowship, which means the hexagram values difference and simply asks it be held without hostility.
The third line is one of the most violent images in the book: the wagon hauled back, the oxen stopped, a man branded and mutilated. Then four characters, no beginning but an end, which is the classic's way of saying the situation reverses.
That reversal arrives fully at the top line. Someone approaches, and the isolated person sees a filthy pig and then a cart full of demons. The bow comes up, and then goes down, because it is not a raider. It is a suitor. And the rain falls, which in this book always means a tension has broken. Nothing about the situation changed except the perception, and the hexagram places that scene at the end deliberately.
In a reading
Opposition as an answer describes estrangement, crossed purposes or a relationship where nothing is landing. Small things succeed and large ones do not.
Its counsel is not to force reconciliation. Do not chase what has gone, keep your own position honestly, and stay open to the meeting when it comes in an irregular form. The top line is the one worth sitting with: check whether the monster you are looking at is a misread.
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.
-
Nine at the top
Isolated by opposition. You see a pig covered in filth, a wagon full of demons. First you draw the bow, then you lay it down. Not a raider, a suitor. Going on, you meet the rain, and there is good fortune.
The classic's picture of a suspicion collapsing. What looked monstrous was someone arriving to make an offer.
-
Six in the fifth place
Regret disappears. Your kinsman bites through the wrapping. Going to him, how could it be a mistake?
The barrier is chewed through from the other side. Someone else does the work of reconnecting.
-
Nine in the fourth place
Isolated by opposition. One meets someone of like mind and they trust each other. Danger, and no blame.
Finding the one other person who sees it the same way. The danger stays; the isolation ends.
-
Six in the third place
One sees the wagon dragged back, the oxen halted, a man branded and his nose cut off. No beginning, but an end.
A scene of total obstruction and mutilation, followed by four characters saying it comes right.
-
Nine in the second place
One meets one's lord in a back alley. No blame.
The right meeting in the wrong setting. The classic explicitly excuses the irregularity.
-
Nine at the beginning
Regret disappears. If you lose your horse, do not chase it; it comes back on its own. When you meet unpleasant people, guard against error.
Two pieces of advice for an estranged time: do not pursue, and stay accurate.
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