Hexagram 17 · Upper canon
Sui · Following
Before you follow, look at the direction.
The figure
- Number
- 17 (Upper canon)
- Upper trigram
- Lake (Dui)
- Lower trigram
- Thunder (Zhen)
- Keywords
- following · choosing · flexibility
- Reversed and inverted
- Gu · Work on the Spoiled
The meaning
What the name means Sui is following, and also going along with the times.
The picture Lake above, thunder below: when the thunder stirs the water moves with it, one leading and one answering.
The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about how to follow and whom. Being willing to follow and to be followed is flexibility, but first see the direction. Easygoing is not the same as having no mind of your own.
In plain words: what this hexagram says
You are willing to follow and to be followed. Look at what you follow; being easygoing is not the same as having no mind of your own.
The upper trigram is Lake and the lower is Thunder: Lake above, Thunder below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.
The judgement
元亨利貞，無咎。
The image
澤中有雷，隨；君子以嚮晦入宴息。
The six lines
From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.
- 初九官有渝，貞吉。出門交有功。
- 六二系小子，失丈夫。
- 六三系丈夫，失小子。隨有求得，利居貞。
- 九四隨有獲，貞兇。有孚在道，以明，何咎？
- 九五孚於嘉，吉。
- 上六拘繫之，乃從維之，王用亨於西山。
To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".