The Marrying Maiden
- In Chinese
- 歸妹 guīmèi
- Above
- The Arousing, thunder
- Below
- The Joyous, lake
Did you get this hexagram?
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Mark my castWhat hexagram 54 means
Hexagram 54 is thunder over the lake. Its name speaks of a marriage, and of a particular bride. Legge points out that “Mei means 'a younger sister,' and not merely a young lady or a daughter”.
The judgment is a plain warning. In Legge it says that “action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous”.
Several lines are gentler than the judgment. The first and the fifth end in good fortune, the fourth says that the time for the marriage comes, and only the top line repeats the warning.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
歸妹征凶，无攸利。
THE MARRYING MAIDEN. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.
misfortune it goes badlynothing that would further nothing is favorable
The image
澤上有雷，《歸妹》。君子以永終知敝。
Thunder over the lake: The image of THE MARRYING MAIDEN. Thus the superior man Understands the transitory In the light of the eternity of the end.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment begins far above the wedding. It sees in the marriage the relation between heaven and earth, and says that “If heaven and earth were to have no intercommunication, things would not grow and flourish as they do”.
The same commentary reads the marriage as a turning point. It is “the end (of her maidenhood) and the beginning (of her motherhood)”. In the figure it finds “pleasure and, on the ground of that, movement following”.
It then explains the warning by the figure itself. Action is evil because “the places (of the lines) are not those appropriate to them”, and nothing is advantageous because “the weak (third and fifth lines) are mounted on strong lines”.
Legge reports the reasons given for the bad verdict. The two trigrams show two violations of propriety. The first is that “the marriage represented is initiated by the lady and her friends”. The second is that “the parties are unequally matched”, and he adds “There ought not to be such disparity of age between them.”
The image is a marsh with thunder over it. From it the commentary draws a rule of foresight. The superior man, “having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief (that may be done at the beginning)”. Wilhelm has him understand the transitory “In the light of the eternity of the end”.
Legge does not think that marriage is the real subject. For him “The marriage comes in, as in the preceding essay, by way of illustration”, and the writer wanted “to set forth some principles which should obtain in the relation between a ruler and his ministers”.
The six lines
First line
歸妹以娣。跛能履，征吉。
The marrying maiden as a concubine. A lame man who is able to tread. Undertakings bring good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
Legge explains the custom behind the picture. The bride who was to be the proper wife was attended by others, among them a half-sister of lower rank, and “Under line 1 the younger sister of the hexagram appears in the inferior position of this half-sister”.
The younger sister enters the house in a second place, below the real wife. The commentary does not find this strange and calls it “the constant practice (for such a case)”.
The picture is of someone lame who still walks, and the line ends well. Legge gives the reason, that “the line is strong, indicative in a female of firm virtue”, and so “the secondary wife will in a measure discharge her service”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 40, Deliverance
Second line
眇能視，利幽人之貞。
A one-eyed man who is able to see. The perseverance of a solitary man furthers.
it furthers it is favorable
Here the picture is sight with one eye. Legge explains that the partner of this line, the fifth, is weak, and with such a partner the able lady “cannot do much in the discharge of her proper work”.
What the line praises is constancy. The commentary says she “has not changed from the constancy (proper to a wife)”, and Legge adds that “such devotion will have its effect and its reward”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 51, The Arousing
Third line
歸妹以須，反歸以娣。
The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine.
no verdict
This is a broken line, and Legge calls it “weak, where it should be strong”. The younger sister is in a mean position, and in the end she “returns and accepts an ancillary position”.
The text adds no word of fortune or misfortune. The commentary speaks only of “the improprieties (indicated in the line)”, and Legge is harsher, since he sees in her “such a slave of passion that no one will marry her”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 34, Great Power
Fourth line
歸妹愆期，遲歸有時。
The marrying maiden draws out the allotted time. A late marriage comes in due course.
no verdict
The younger sister is “protracting the time”. The text does not blame her. It says “She may be late in being married, but the time will come”.
The commentary gives the delay a purpose, which is that “after waiting, the thing may be done (all the better)”. Legge reads her as someone in no haste. In his words “She waits, and the good time will come”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 19, Approach
Fifth line
帝乙歸妹，其君之袂不如其娣之袂良。月幾望、吉。
The sovereign I gave his daughter in marriage. The embroidered garments of the princess Were not as gorgeous As those of the servingmaid. The moon that is nearly full Brings good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
A king's sister marries, and her sleeves “were not equal to those of the (still) younger sister who accompanied her in an inferior capacity”. The commentary takes this as a sign of worth, for “such was her noble character”.
Legge says the adorning she preferred was “the ornament of the hidden man of the heart”. The line closes with the moon almost full and with good fortune, and it is one of the two lines of this hexagram that end that way.
Legge also ties the good ending to her merit and to the place of the line. She “gets happily married, as she deserved to do, being represented by the line in the place of honour, having its proper correlate in 2”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 58, The Joyous
Sixth line
女承筐，无實，士刲羊，无血，无攸利。
The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it. The man stabs the sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing that acts to further.
nothing that would further nothing is favorable
The top line shows two empty gestures. The lady carries the basket “but without anything in it”, and the gentleman slaughters the sheep “but without blood flowing from it”.
Legge places the scene in the temple, where the two appear “offering or sacrificing to the spirits of their ancestors”. He describes the line as “weak, at the top of the hexagram, and without a proper correlate”, and the man's part as done “without effect”. It is the one line whose text repeats the warning of the judgment.
The commentary keeps to the first of the two pictures. It says the subject of the line “is carrying an empty basket”. Legge states the verdict in four words, “Hence its auspice is evil.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 38, Opposition
Hexagram 54 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 54 unchanging, what remains is the warning of the judgment, that action is not advantageous, and the image of a person who looks to the far end and so sees the harm that can be done at the start.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 54 mean?
It takes the marriage of a younger sister as its picture and warns against acting. The judgment says that “action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous”, and the commentary gives as the reason that the lines are not in the places appropriate to them.
What does hexagram 54 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 54 that is the warning against action, and the rule of “having regard to the far-distant end”.
What does hexagram 54 changing to 19 mean?
It is hexagram 54 with its fourth line moving. That line shows the younger sister “protracting the time” before her marriage, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 19.
What does hexagram 54 changing to 38 mean?
It is hexagram 54 with its top line moving. That line shows a basket with nothing in it, and its text says “There will be no advantage in any way”. When it changes the hexagram becomes number 38.
How is hexagram 54 related to hexagram 53?
Hexagram 53 comes just before it, and it is both its opposite and its inverse. Legge notes that lines 2, 3, 4 and 5 are here in places not suited to them, “quite different from the corresponding lines in the preceding hexagram”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Kwei Mei in James Legge. The Marrying Maiden in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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