Hexagram 38 · Kuí 睽 Estrangement

睽，小事吉。

Kui: in small matters, good fortune.

Zhu Xi glosses the name as being at odds. Fire above and lake below have natures that pull apart, and the two daughters' wills do not lead to the same home. Still, the figure has redeeming traits: joy within and brightness without; yielding lines that have moved upward, in his account of how the figure derives from Hexagram 30, Li, Hexagram 61, Zhong Fu, and Hexagram 37, Jia Ren; and a central fifth line that answers a strong partner in the second. Because of these, the text rules out great undertakings but leaves good fortune open in small ones.

上火下澤，睽。君子以同而異。

Fire above, lake below: Estrangement. So the noble person shares common ground and yet remains distinct.

Zhu Xi's note is brief: two trigrams join in one figure, yet their natures stay different. The noble person lives the same way, sharing what can be shared with others without dissolving into them. Difference inside one whole is not only a problem here; it is also a model.

Line 1, yang (初九)changing line in the shared reading

悔亡。喪馬勿逐，自復。見惡人，无咎。

Regret vanishes. A horse is lost: do not chase it, it comes back on its own. Meeting a bad person: no blame.

The first line (初九) has no natural partner above, since the fourth line is yang as well, and that would mean regret. But in a time of estrangement, Zhu Xi notes, those of like character find each other, so the regret clears, and the horse that wandered off returns unchased. One still has to meet people one would rather avoid. Doing so without blame is possible, and he points to Confucius with Yang Huo as the example.

Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading

遇主于巷，无咎。

Meeting one's lord in a lane. No blame.

Proper partners though they are, the second line (九二) and the fifth do not come together in the open during a season of estrangement. Zhu Xi reads the narrow lane as the roundabout way they must take to find each other. Meeting by a side street is no fault when the main road is closed. What matters is that the meeting happens, not how formally.

Line 3, yin (六三)changing line in the shared reading

見輿曳，其牛掣，其人天且劓，无初有終。

The cart is seen dragged back, its ox held fast. Its driver's head is shaved and his nose is cut. No beginning, but an end.

The third line (六三) belongs with the top line, but it is wedged between two yang lines: the second drags its cart from behind, the fourth stops its ox in front. At the height of estrangement, the top line's suspicion runs so deep that it inflicts injury as well. Zhu Xi still finds hope. What is crooked cannot defeat what is right, so these partners do come together at last. A bad start is not the whole story.

Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading

睽孤，遇元夫，交孚，厲，无咎。

Estranged and alone. Meeting a worthy man, they trust each other. Danger, but no blame.

For Zhu Xi, 'estranged and alone' means the fourth line (九四) has no partner. Then it finds the first line, a yang line like itself, and the two trust each other because they share the same character. Even so, in this season the bond carries risk, and blame is avoided only by staying wary. Trust between equals still needs care when the times pull people apart.

Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading

悔亡。厥宗噬膚，往何咎。

Regret vanishes. The kinsman bites through soft skin. Going forth, what blame could there be?

A yin line in a yang seat is a source of regret, but the fifth line (六五) is central and has a partner, so the regret clears. Zhu Xi identifies the kinsman as the second line, and says biting into soft skin means coming together easily, with no tough hide in the way. With a yielding, central character, going forward to meet that partner carries no blame.

Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading

睽孤，見豕負塗，載鬼一車，先張之弧，後說之弧，匪寇婚媾，往遇雨則吉。

Estranged and alone. One sees a pig covered in mud, a cart full of ghosts. First the bow is drawn, then it is laid down. Not a raider, but a marriage match. Going on and meeting rain: then good fortune.

Here estrangement is at its peak. The top line (上九) is strong, at the far edge of brightness, suspicious by nature, and cut off from its partner, the third line. Zhu Xi reads its sights as the work of suspicion: the muddy pig is seeing filth, the ghosts are seeing what is not there. The bow is drawn, then lowered as doubt eases, and the stranger proves to be kin by marriage. Rain marks the last doubt dissolving and the two being joined.