姤 Encounter
Upper trigram: Heaven (the sky) · Lower trigram: Wind (wind)
An unexpected encounter — do not commit before you understand it.
Modern interpretation
Something unexpected is approaching: an encounter, an offer, perhaps a temptation. Do not let it close around you hastily. Observe it fully, understand what it wants, and only then decide. What arrives suddenly should be answered slowly.
The Judgment · 卦辞
女壮，勿用取女。
“Ku shows a female who is bold and strong. It will not be good to marry (such) a female.” — James Legge, The Yî King (1882)
The six lines · 爻辞
Read from the bottom line upward. Each line pairs the received Chinese text with Legge's English translation.
系于金柅，贞吉。有攸往，见凶，羸豕孚蹢躅。
“The first line, divided, shows how its subject should be kept (like a carriage) tied and fastened to a metal drag, in which case with firm correctness there will be good fortune. (But) if he move in any direction, evil will appear. He will be (like) a lean pig, which is sure to keep jumping about.”
包有鱼，无咎，不利宾。
“The second line, undivided, shows its subject with a wallet of fish. There will be no error. But it will not be well to let (the subject of the first line) go forward to the guests.”
臀无肤，其行次且，厉，无大咎。
“The third line, undivided, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped so that he walks with difficulty. The position is perilous, but there will be no great error.”
包无鱼，起凶。
“The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject with his wallet, but no fish in it. This will give rise to evil.”
以杞包瓜，含章，有陨自天。
“The fifth line, undivided, (shows its subject as) a medlar tree overspreading the gourd (beneath it). If he keep his brilliant qualities concealed, (a good issue) will descend (as) from Heaven.”
姤其角，吝，无咎。
“The sixth line, undivided, shows its subject receiving others on his horns. There will be occasion for regret, but there will be no error.”
About changing lines
In a real I Ching reading, hexagrams are built by casting coins or yarrow stalks six times, bottom line first. Some lines come out “old” (unstable) — an old yin or old yang flips into its opposite, producing a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading. The changing lines are the moving parts of your answer: read their individual line statements above, and they point to the direction of change.
Ask a question and cast the coins — free, with a plain-English interpretation grounded in the classical text.
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