Gathering Together
- In Chinese
- 萃 cuì
- Above
- The Joyous, lake
- Below
- The Receptive, earth
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 45 means
Hexagram 45 is about gathering. Legge says its name “denotes collecting together, or things so collected”. The lake stands over the earth, and two whole lines in the fourth and fifth places sit among four broken ones.
The judgment is favorable. The king goes to his ancestral temple, and Wilhelm has “To bring great offerings creates good fortune”.
It sets one condition. In Legge's words “the advantage must come through firm correctness”.
Every one of the six lines speaks of no error or no blame. Three of them get there through sighs or tears.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
萃亨，王假有廟。利見大人。亨，利貞，用大牲吉。利有攸往。
GATHERING TOGETHER. Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to see the great man. This brings success. Perseverance furthers. To bring great offerings creates good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorablegood fortune it goes well
The image
澤上於地，《萃》。君子以除戎器，戒不虞。
Over the earth, the lake: The image of GATHERING TOGETHER. Thus the superior man renews his weapons In order to meet the unforeseen.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment says where the union comes from. It points to the fifth line, since “There is the strong line in the central place, and rightly responded to”.
The same commentary names two qualities in the figure. The hexagram shows “docile obedience going on to (what is expressed by that of) satisfaction”.
On the king in his temple it speaks of devotion. There “with the utmost filial piety he presents his offerings”. Legge adds that the king goes to “meet in spirit there with the spirits of his ancestors”. Of the great victims the commentary says “all is done in accordance with the ordinances of Heaven”, and Legge notes that they are “the best that can be obtained”.
Legge reads the hexagram as a picture of public life. It concerns “the state of the kingdom when a happy union prevails between the sovereign and his ministers, between high and low”. He says it replies “in a vague way” to the question of how such a state is kept. The reply is “by the influence of religion, and the great man, who is a sage upon the throne”.
The image is the water of a marsh raised above the earth. From it the commentary draws a rule of readiness. The superior man “has his weapons of war put in good repair, to be prepared against unforeseen contingencies”.
The commentary on the judgment closes with a wider claim. In the way these gatherings happen “the natural tendencies (in the outward action) of heaven and earth and of all things can be seen”.
The six lines
First line
有孚不終，乃亂乃萃，若號一握為笑，勿恤，往无咎。
If you are sincere, but not to the end, There will sometimes be confusion, sometimes gathering together. If you call out, Then after one grasp of the hand you can laugh again. Regret not. Going is without blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The wish for union is sincere but it is not carried through, and disorder follows. The commentary says “his mind and aim are thrown into confusion”.
Legge explains the trouble by the place of the line. Its partner is the fourth line, but it “is separated from him by the intervention of two weak lines”. The way out is to call for help. Then, in Legge's note, “his sorrow is turned into joy”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 17, Following
Second line
引吉，无咎，孚乃利用禴。
Letting oneself be drawn Brings good fortune and remains blameless. If one is sincere, It furthers one to bring even a small offering.
good fortune it goes wellno blame there is no mistake in itit furthers it is favorable
This line is led forward and does well by it. Legge notes that it answers “the strong ruler in 5, who encourages and helps the advance of its subject”.
The offering it speaks of is a small one. Legge calls it the sacrifice of the spring, “small compared with the fulness of the sacrifices in summer and autumn”, and says that with sincerity “it would be accepted”. The commentary on the line adds that “(the virtue proper to) his central place has not undergone any change”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 47, Oppression
Third line
萃如嗟如，无攸利，往无咎，小吝。
Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing that would further. Going is without blame. Slight humiliation.
nothing that would further nothing is favorableno blame there is no mistake in ithumiliation it leads to embarrassment
Here the wish for union meets no welcome nearby. Legge writes that “2 and 4 decline to associate with him”, so “he presses on to 6, which is also desirous of union”.
The text allows the step, though with “some small cause for regret”. The commentary gives the reason, that in the top line “there is humility and condescension”. Legge adds that the goal is reached “with difficulty”.
Legge points out that the two come together “notwithstanding 3 and 6 are both divided lines”. He then remarks, in brackets, that a rule overruled in this way “shows how much of fancy there is in the symbolism or in the commentaries on it”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 31, Influence
Fourth line
大吉无咎。
Great good fortune. No blame.
great good fortune it goes very wellno blame there is no mistake in it
Wilhelm gives this line in five words, “Great good fortune. No blame.” Legge reads it as a condition. Its subject is free of blame “if he be greatly fortunate”.
The commentary explains the condition by the place of the line, since “his position is not the one proper to him”. Legge notes that the line is “near to the ruling line in 5”, which leads one to expect a good sign, but that its place “calls for the caution which is insinuated”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 8, Holding Together
Fifth line
萃有位，无咎。匪孚，元、永貞悔亡。
If in gathering together one has position, This brings no blame. If there are some who are not yet sincerely in the work, Sublime and enduring perseverance is needed. Then remorse disappears.
no blame there is no mistake in itremorse disappears regret fades away
This is the ruling line, the center of the gathering. Legge calls it “strong, central, and in its correct position” and expects from it “the full realisation of the idea of the hexagram”.
Some may not trust the one who stands there. For that case the text asks that his virtue be “great, long-continued, and firmly correct”. The commentary adds that “his mind and aim have not yet been brilliantly displayed”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 16, Enthusiasm
Sixth line
齎咨涕洟，无咎。
Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears. No blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The top line weeps and is not at fault. Legge explains that it “is still anxious for union; but he has no proper correlate, and all below are united in 5”.
Its subject “mourns his solitary condition”, and Legge reads that “his good feeling will preserve him from error and blame”. The commentary puts it briefly, “he does not yet rest in his topmost position”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 12, Standstill
Hexagram 45 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 45 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, where gathering succeeds through firm correctness and great offerings, and the image, which asks for readiness against the unforeseen.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 45 mean?
It describes a time of gathering, which Legge glosses as “collecting together”. The judgment is favorable, on the condition that “the advantage must come through firm correctness”.
What does hexagram 45 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 45 that is gathering that succeeds through firm correctness, and the call “to be prepared against unforeseen contingencies”.
What does hexagram 45 changing to 8 mean?
It is hexagram 45 with its fourth line moving. Wilhelm gives that line as “Great good fortune. No blame.”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 8.
What does hexagram 45 changing to 16 mean?
It is hexagram 45 with its fifth line moving. That line shows “the union (of all) under its subject in the place of dignity”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 16.
Which trigrams make up hexagram 45?
Earth is below and Lake is above. Wilhelm's image opens with “Over the earth, the lake”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Žhui in James Legge. Gathering Together in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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