Six Doors · No. 59

第59卦涣 Huàn · Dispersion

Essence: Dissolve what divides, and the whole regathers.

Judgment

Hearts have scattered and hardened into factions, and they cannot be pulled back by force. Work like wind over water: dissolve the rigid things first—self-interest, cliques, old resentments—then regather people around a cause held in common reverence. It is worth crossing deep water for.

Sixty-four hexagrams, six doors each

Trigrams

Upper

巽 Wind

wind

Lower

坎 Water

water

III

The lines

Line 1At the first sign of drift, bring in strong help at once—rescue is easy while the cracks are shallow.
Line 2As things dissolve around you, hurry to your own solid support; once braced there, regret has nothing to feed on.
Line 3Dissolve even your own self-interest, losing yourself in the work at hand—done so, there is nothing to rue.
Line 4Breaking up your own faction for the sake of a higher unity—supremely fortunate, and a move ordinary thinking would never conceive.
Line 5Into the scattering, issue one great rallying call—irrevocable as sweat leaving the body—and disperse even the ruler's own stores to the people; that is beyond reproach.
Line 6Dissolve the very possibility of bloodshed by moving out of harm's reach, taking your people with 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 59, Huan (Dispersion): Wind Over Water, Explained

A close reading of Hexagram 59, Huan, Dispersion: wind breaking up stagnant water, why the scattering is a cure not a loss, its six lines, and how to read it in a cast.

5 min read