The youngest daughter following the eldest son, moved by pleasure: a hexagram of a union not rightly made, where the text finds nothing to gain by pressing on.
The lower trigram is Dui ☱, the lake, whose quality is joy and whose family figure is the youngest daughter; the upper is Zhen ☳, thunder, whose quality is movement and whose figure is the eldest son. Zhu Xi sees a young woman following an older man, with feeling that moves because it is pleased; neither, he says, is correct. That is why the text warns against going forward.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
歸妹，征凶，无攸利。
Gui Mei: going forward brings misfortune. Nothing is favorable.
A woman's marrying is called 歸, “going home,” Zhu Xi explains, and 妹 is a young woman. Here Dui, the youngest daughter, follows Zhen, the eldest son, and the motive is pleasure that sets things moving; neither is correct. The lines from the second to the fifth are all out of their proper places, and the third and fifth are soft lines riding on firm ones. So going forward brings misfortune and nothing is favorable. The text looks at how a union is made, not only at the fact of it.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
澤上有雷，歸妹。君子以永終知敝。
Thunder above the lake: Gui Mei. The noble person, accordingly, keeps the long end in view and knows what will wear thin.
Thunder moves and the lake follows: that, for Zhu Xi, is the marriage in this hexagram. Seeing that the union is not rightly made, the noble person knows its end will be flawed. He adds that the same holds for every affair one extends it to.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yang (初九)changing line in the shared reading
歸妹以娣，跛能履，征吉。
The young woman marries as a secondary wife. The lame can still walk. Going forward brings good fortune.
At the bottom and without a proper correspondent, the first line (初九) is the secondary wife (娣). Firm yang in a woman, Zhu Xi says, stands for worth and rectitude, but a secondary wife's humble place lets her do no more than support the principal wife, like a lame person who can still walk. Within those limits, going forward is favorable.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
眇能視，利幽人之貞。
One-eyed, yet able to see. The steadfast correctness of a secluded person is fitting.
“One-eyed, yet able to see” continues the image of the line before. Firm and central, the second line is a woman of worth, but her partner, the fifth line, is yin, weak and not correct: a good woman poorly matched, unable to fully accomplish her work within the household. What suits her is the constancy of the secluded person, who, in Zhu Xi's words, holds to the Way and stays correct though unpaired.
Line 3, yin (六三)changing line in the shared reading
歸妹以須，反歸以娣。
The young woman, set to marry, is left waiting. She turns back and marries as a secondary wife.
Weak, neither central nor correct, and the leading line of the trigram of pleasure, the third line is read by Zhu Xi as a woman who is not upright and whom no one will take. Having found no one to marry, she goes back and becomes a secondary wife. He also records another view, that 須 means a woman of low status.
Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading
歸妹愆期，遲歸有時。
The young woman lets the time for marriage pass. A late marriage has its time.
Yang in the upper trigram and without a proper correspondent, the fourth line is, for Zhu Xi, a worthy woman who does not follow anyone lightly and lets the usual time pass while she waits for the right match. He points out that this is exactly the reverse of the third line.
Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading
帝乙歸妹，其君之袂，不如其娣之袂良，月幾望，吉。
Di Yi gives the young woman in marriage. The bride's sleeves are not as fine as the secondary wife's. The moon is nearly full. Good fortune.
Soft and central in the place of honor, the fifth line answers the firm second line below. It values virtue rather than finery, so the picture is of the young woman Di Yi gives in marriage, wedding beneath her rank and plainly dressed. Womanly virtue, Zhu Xi says, can go no higher than this, so the text adds the moon on the verge of fullness. The text calls it good fortune for one who is like this.
Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading
女承筐无實，士刲羊无血，无攸利。
The woman holds up a basket with nothing in it. The man cuts the sheep, and no blood comes. Nothing is favorable.
Weak and yin at the end of the hexagram, with no correspondent, the top line is, for Zhu Xi, a marriage agreed upon but never completed. The empty basket and the sacrifice that yields no blood are gestures with nothing behind them, and the text finds nothing favorable.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.
Characters corrected in this hexagram — Line 5, yin (六五): 月幾里 → 月幾望