Hexagram 40 · Lower canon
Xie · Deliverance
It has loosened; clear it up while you can.
The figure
- Number
- 40 (Lower canon)
- Upper trigram
- Thunder (Zhen)
- Lower trigram
- Water (Kan)
- Keywords
- relief · letting go · clearing
- Reversed hexagram
- Jia Ren · The Family
- Inverted hexagram
- Jian · Obstruction
The meaning
What the name means Xie is untying: relief, loosening.
The picture Thunder and rain together, and after the rain the stifled air is released.
The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about the time when a difficulty eases. Loosen what can be loosened as soon as you can, and do not go over old accounts. Finish the clearing up that needs doing, then go forward light.
In plain words: what this hexagram says
What was tight has loosened. Let go of what should go and deal early with what must be dealt with; leave no tail.
The upper trigram is Thunder and the lower is Water: Thunder above, Water 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
利西南。無所往，其來復吉。有攸往，夙吉。
The image
雷雨作，解；君子以赦過宥罪。
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.
- 初六無咎。
- 九二田獲三狐，得黃矢，貞吉。
- 六三負且乘，致寇至，貞吝。
- 九四解而拇，朋至斯孚。
- 六五君子維有解，吉；有孚於小人。
- 上六公用射隼於高墉之上，獲之，無不利。
To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".