Hexagram 60: Jie

Water over Lake · 水泽节 · Tendency: Inauspicious

Structure

• Number: 60 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷻
• Upper trigram: Kan (Water)
• Lower trigram: Dui (Lake)
• Lines: yang yang yin yin yang yin (bottom to top)

The statement

亨。苦节，不可贞。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram reminds you to set boundaries and practice moderation. Suitable for budgeting, setting rules, and controlling pace, so that things have a measure to follow. Too loose moderation will lead to loss of control; too tight will crush people. The key is to find a scale that everyone can implement long-term.

A Buddhist reading

A lake holds water because it has a limit, and from this Zhixu argues that with proper measure nothing bursts and nothing dries, so the moistening lasts. Excessive dispersion drains away, which is why Jie (Limitation) follows Dispersion. Yet limit itself can be overdone: held to the centre it is not bitter, and bitterness carried to the extreme closes the road. On regulating measures and weighing conduct he lists ceremonial dress, ancestral rites, meeting a ruler and serving parents, noting that numbers have their standards and conduct rests on virtue, with neither excess nor deficiency. The bitter limitation of the top line, rigid and calling itself upright, is no longer upright.

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 / Inverted: Hexagram 59: Huanthe whole figure turned upside down
• Next: Hexagram 61: Zhong Fu
• Opposite: Hexagram 56: Lvevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 27: Yilines 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.