Hexagram 31: Xian

Lake over Mountain · 泽山咸 · Tendency: Auspicious

Structure

• Number: 31 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷞
• Upper trigram: Dui (Lake)
• Lower trigram: Gen (Mountain)
• Lines: yin yin yang yang yang yin (bottom to top)

The statement

亨。利贞。取女吉。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates mutual resonance; it is suitable for relationships, cooperation, communication, and building trust. The key is sincere response, not manipulation. Both emotions and cooperation require balance—being too eager or too forceful can upset the harmony.

A Buddhist reading

Xian (Influence) is about resonance. Ouyi Zhixu reads the young man and young woman as each in turn active and receptive: one is wisdom holding stillness, the other stillness holding wisdom, and the hexagram exists only in their mutual response. In Buddhist terms, beings appeal to the Buddha with sincerity and the Buddha responds by teaching; in contemplative terms, the observing wisdom and the observed situation illuminate each other. What matters most is that the resonance be upright, the way a marriage follows proper rites. The image of receiving others through emptiness is especially vivid: conceit is a high mountain where the water of Dharma cannot stay, and a lake sits on a mountain only because a space has been hollowed out. To resonate all day without losing that still and unmoving ground is the right way to feel.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous: Hexagram 30: Li
• Next / Inverted: Hexagram 32: Hengthe whole figure turned upside down
• Opposite: Hexagram 41: Sunevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 44: Goulines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.