Six Doors · No. 38

第38卦睽 Kuí · Opposition

Essence: Estranged yet related; work the small common ground.

Judgment

Positions have diverged and eyes look in different directions, so grand unity is out of reach for now. Yet estrangement is not enmity—beneath the differences a common root remains. Do not force agreement on the large questions; cooperate on small concrete matters, and trust will accumulate there.

Sixty-four hexagrams, six doors each

Trigrams

Upper

离 Fire

fire

Lower

兑 Lake

lake

III

The lines

Line 1Do not chase what has strayed—it returns on its own; and if an adversary appears, meeting him openly costs you nothing.
Line 2When formal channels are blocked, an informal meeting in a side lane serves just as well.
Line 3Everything seems dragged back and every effort insulted—yet this is only a hard beginning, not the ending.
Line 4Isolated by the rift, you find one person of like mind; met with full sincerity, the danger passes.
Line 5Once the barrier gives way as easily as teeth through soft skin, there is no fault in going forward to reconnect.
Line 6Suspicion at its worst sees mud-caked pigs and wagonloads of ghosts—lower the drawn bow, and the stranger turns out to be kin coming to join you.

All the doors

Every single-step transition available from where you stand.

Inverse (綜) · Opposite (錯)

Inverse (綜)

Opposite (錯)

Written on this

Hexagram 38, Kuí (Opposition): Reading Difference Without Enmity

Hexagram 38, Kuí, Opposition, read closely: fire rising as the lake sinks, why estrangement is not enmity, its six lines, and how to read it when cast.

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