兑 Joy
Upper trigram: Lake (the lake) · Lower trigram: Lake (the lake)
Open exchange — joy shared is joy doubled.
Modern interpretation
Communicate openly, celebrate genuinely, connect warmly. Joy shared with sincerity uplifts everyone around you. One guardrail: let pleasure be heartfelt rather than indulgent, and this hexagram blesses every gathering.
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨。利贞。
“Tui intimates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and attainment. (But) it will be advantageous to be firm and correct.” — 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.
和兑，吉。
“The first line, undivided, shows the pleasure of (inward) harmony. There will be good fortune.”
孚兑，吉，悔亡。
“The second line, undivided, shows the pleasure arising from (inward) sincerity. There will be good fortune. Occasion for repentance will disappear.”
来兑，凶。
“The third line, divided, shows its subject bringing round himself whatever can give pleasure. There will be evil.”
商兑未宁，介疾有喜。
“The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject deliberating about what to seek his pleasure in, and not at rest. He borders on what would be injurious, but there will be cause for joy.”
孚于剥，有厉。
“The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject trusting in one who would injure him. The situation is perilous.”
引兑。
“The topmost line, divided, shows the pleasure of its subject in leading and attracting others.”
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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