Gou · Coming to Meet

The meaning

What the name means Gou is meeting, an unexpected meeting.

The picture Wind under heaven, the wind blowing beneath it, meeting everywhere.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about an unplanned meeting. Look clearly at a person or matter that turns up unexpectedly before you come close. Not everything that arrives is fit to stay.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

An unexpected meeting. Do not rush to come close and do not refuse at once; first see what it is.

The upper trigram is Heaven and the lower is Wind: Heaven above, Wind 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

女壯，勿用取女。

The image

天下有風，姤；後以施命誥四方。

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.

1. 初六繫於金柅，貞吉，有攸往，見兇，羸豕孚蹢躅。
2. 九二包有魚，無咎，不利賓。
3. 九三臀無膚，其行次且，厲，無大咎。
4. 九四包無魚，起兇。
5. 九五以杞包瓜，含章，有隕自天。
6. 上九姤其角，吝，無咎。

To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".