58 兌 Duì Joy

This site's reading

卦辭 亨。利貞: it gets through; firmness advantageous. Joy with a firm centre is the condition; the lines sort the kinds of pleasure.

彖 The commentary: 兌 is joy; firm within and yielding without, joy with firmness is what accords with heaven and answers people. Lead the people with joy and they forget their toil; face danger with joy and they forget death. The greatness of joy is that the people are encouraged.

大象 Lakes joined: the noble person with friends discusses and practises. Joy here is conversation and study among friends.

爻 The lines: harmonious joy, good; sincere joy, good, regret gone; joy that is courted, evil; joy weighed and not yet at rest, a sickness kept off and there is gladness; trusting in what strips away, danger; and at the top joy that leads others on. Joy from within (lines 1 and 2) is good; joy fetched from outside (line 3) and joy that trusts the wrong thing (line 5) are the faults.

Written from the text above and checked against it by Lun (2026-10-24). It is a way of reading the hexagram, not a prediction.

The text, with Legge

Judgment 卦辭

The six lines

1. Line 1 初九

   和兌，吉。

   hé duì, jí.

   The first line, undivided, shows the pleasure of (inward) harmony. There will be good fortune. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   和兌之吉，行未疑也。

   hé duì zhī jí, xíng wèi yí yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 47 困 Kùn.

2. Line 2 九二

   孚兌，吉，悔亡。

   fú duì, jí, huǐ wáng.

   The second line, undivided, shows the pleasure arising from (inward) sincerity. There will be good fortune. Occasion for repentance will disappear. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   孚兌之吉，信志也。

   fú duì zhī jí, xìn zhì yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 17 隨 Suí.

3. Line 3 六三

   來兌，凶。

   lái duì, xiōng.

   The third line, divided, shows its subject bringing round himself whatever can give pleasure. There will be evil. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   來兌之凶，位不當也。

   lái duì zhī xiōng, wèi bù dāng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 43 夬 Guài.

4. Line 4 九四

   商兌，未寧，介疾有喜。

   shāng duì, wèi níng, jiè jí yǒu xǐ.

   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. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   九四之喜，有慶也。

   jiǔ sì zhī xǐ, yǒu qìng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 60 節 Jié.

5. Line 5 九五

   孚于剝，有厲。

   fú yú bō, yǒu lì.

   The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject trusting in one who would injure him. The situation is perilous. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   孚于剝，位正當也。

   fú yú bō, wèi zhèng dāng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 54 歸妹 Guī Mèi.

6. Line 6 上六

   引兌。

   yǐn duì.

   The topmost line, divided, shows the pleasure of its subject in leading and attracting others. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   上六引兌，未光也。

   shàng liù yǐn duì, wèi guāng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 10 履 Lǚ.

Related hexagrams

• 57 巽 Xùn, Wind its pair in the King Wen sequence
• 37 家人 Jiā Rén, The Household its nuclear hexagram 互卦, lines 2 to 4 under 3 to 5
• 52 艮 Gèn, Stillness its opposite 錯卦, every line flipped
• 57 巽 Xùn, Wind its inverse 綜卦, the figure turned upside down

Where the name comes from

Legge's note (1882)

Legge's title for the hexagram: pleasure, complacent satisfaction.

LVIII. The trigram Tui symbolises water as collected in a marsh or lake; and its attribute or virtus is pleasure or complacent satisfaction. It is a matter of some difficulty to determine in one’s mind how this attribute came to be connected with the trigram. The Khang-hsî editors say:—‘When the airs of spring begin to blow, from the collections of water on the earth the moistening vapours rise up (and descend again); so, when the breath of health is vigorous in a man’s person, the hue of it is displayed in his complexion. Akin to this is the significance of the hexagram Tui representing a marsh, as denoting pleasure. Although the yin lines give it its special character they owe their power and effect to the yang; so when the qualities of mildness and harmony prevail in a man, without true-heartedness and integrity to control and direct them, they will fail to be correct, and may degenerate into what is evil. Hence it is said that it will be advantageous to be firm and correct!’ The feeling then of pleasure is the subject of this hexagram. The above quotation sufficiently explains the concluding characters of the Thwan; but where is the intimation in Tui of progress and attainments? It is supposed to be in the one weak line surmounting each trigram and supported by the two strong lines. Fancy sees in that mildness and benignity energised by a double portion of strength. Line 1, strong in the place of strength, with no proper correlate above, is thus confined to itself. But its subject is sufficient for himself. There will be good fortune. Line 2, by the rule of place, should be weak, but it is strong. Without any proper correlate, and contiguous to the weak 3, the subject of it might be injuriously affected, and there would be cause for repentance. But the sincerity natural in his central position counteracts all this. The view of the third paragraph that appears in the translation is derived from the Khang-hsî editors. The evil threatened in it would be a consequence of the excessive devotion of its subject to pleasure. ‘The bordering on what is injurious’ in paragraph 4 has reference to the contiguity of line 4 to the weak 3. That might have an injurious effect; but the subject of 4 reflects and deliberates before he will yield to the seduction of pleasure, and there is cause for joy. The danger to the subject of line 5 is from the weak 6 above, in whom he is represented as ‘trusting.’ Possibly his own strength and sincerity of mind may be perverted into instruments of evil; but possibly, they may operate beneficially. The symbolism of paragraph 6 is akin to that of 3, though no positive auspice is expressed. The subject of line 3 attracts others round itself for the sake of pleasure; the subject of this leads them to follow himself in quest of it.

Sources

• Chinese text: 周易, 維基文庫, page (revision 2404993); the text is public domain, the site's edits CC BY-SA 4.0.
• English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI, Oxford 1882 (public domain), where this hexagram is “Tui”.
• Glyph images: 小學堂 字形演變, Academia Sinica (CC0 1.0).
• Pinyin: Unihan (Unicode License v3) with this site's readings for the classical cases. English gloss, relations, the idiom glosses, the English of the chronicle passages and the plain reading: this site.