58. Duì 兌
JOY, PLEASURE, CONDUCTIVITY
JOY, PLEASURE, CONDUCTIVITY
Joy due to results. Share the fruits of your labors and joy with others.
Joy due to results. Share the fruits of your labors and joy with others.
Hexagram Structure
In this sign, too, the trigram is doubled: Dui, the body of water, stands both inside and outside. Joyfulness runs through both halves of the situation — the inner state and the outer conduct answer each other. By its place in the general sequence this is a lawful outcome: the goal is reached, the subject mastered, and satisfaction arrives as the natural payment for the road travelled.
The aphorism is short: joy is promised accomplishment, but on the condition of steadfastness. The condition is not decorative. Joy has two outlets: turned toward people, it gathers and strengthens; locked inside, it degenerates into smugness and scatters one's forces, creating nothing.
Steadfastness is what keeps it on the first path — in the midst of pleasure to keep watching the rightness of one's own conduct, not letting success cancel the demands one makes of oneself. The inner plot of the sign is a trial by joy: the six steps sort through its sources and its traps, from concord and rightness to dangerous extremes.
How It Works in Practice
The present low spirits are no verdict: happiness is already on its way to you and will disperse this gloom by itself. It needs no urging — worrying on the home stretch speeds nothing up, but it reliably spoils the waiting. Let the good arrive at its own pace.
In business the period is especially kind to trade: deals, exchange, everything where value is born in circulation goes more easily than usual. There is a reverse side: part of what is happening you cannot change, and fretting over it is pure loss. Divide events into those where your effort changes something and those you will simply have to live through, and spend yourself only on the first.
In your personal circle, listen to a friend: his kind advice now weighs more than it seems, and it should not be neglected. At the same time hold your tongue — beware of speaking ill of those around you: in a period whose strength is built on ties between people, malicious talk strikes at the very foundation.
The direct recommendation is simple: keep calm — luck is on its way, and it is best met in an even temper. And if the feeling needs an outlet, sing: the period favors singing too, and that is not a joke of the calendar but its character.
Traditional Description
Above is the trigram Dui (Lake), below is the trigram Dui (Lake). The metaphorical image of this hexagram is contagious delight and beauty and rejoicing prevailing everywhere, when nature offers us its harvest. The upper lake shares its waters with the lower, thus reducing the likelihood of the latter evaporating. Just like joy, knowledge, and wisdom increase when they are shared with society.
The trigram of the Lake symbolizes joy, which is the result of feeling stability (the two lower Yang lines depict this inner strength, and the upper Yin — external softness).
The I Ching reminds us not to allow this trigram, due to its association with speech, to turn into excessive gossip or quarrels. The emphasis on speech should be a sign of benevolence, good mood, wisdom. In addition, this trigram can denote the career of a speaker.
Dui indicates that the flow of nature and the destiny of any person is maximally profound. But even so, one should not forget about friends and like-minded people. Because the knowledge of one person is limited, but the vision (views, opinions, perspectives) of many people is inexhaustible. As the Book of Changes says: “if something is unclear (unknown) – I turn to a like-minded (friend) and gain clarity, so does he, from this joy, the joy of communication, finding common ground”.
Dui reminds us that everything we undertake in life gives us an opportunity to learn something, and after that — a chance to share with others the fruits of our labors. Because no person can live without joy, just as all beings without sunlight. Although the surrounding reality sometimes causes sadness and even despair, in such periods each of us needs joy, like a spring wind or light wine. If you solve any issues with a smile, you will avoid many troubles and problems. A smile and patience – these are the two main secrets for achieving success (at work).nnnnn
I Ching Talking
Joy comes from agreement. Happiness
Hexagram Line Descriptions
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The top line closes the sign without catastrophe. The active phase — the giving out of joy, the negotiations, the recognition — is behind, and the person is left alone with the feeling itself: it draws him now of its own accord, without outer occasion and without deeds. Such a state answers no public task, but neither does it bring harm. The cycle is fulfilled, and keeping pleasure to oneself at the close of the situation is not the egoism of the third step but the natural subsiding of a wave that has already done its work.
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At the summit of joy's expression lies the trap of indiscriminateness: wishing to extend it to everyone, a person begins to excuse even those who destroy — and indulgence toward despoilers is fraught with horror. The line between breadth of soul and connivance fades unnoticed, to general approval. And yet the step is not struck out: this hard experience is necessary — through it is prepared the future dividing of the general into particulars, the next turn of the cycle of changes. The lesson costs dearly, but there is no doing without it.
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The way out of the crisis is negotiation. The sides are unequal in strength, and the agreement reached does not yet bring full satisfaction: it is a compromise, not a union. But the step's mechanics are encouraging — if the parties do not drag things out and move toward each other quickly, the restrained agreement will grow into shared merriment. The reconciling of interests brings back the joyful atmosphere lost at the third position. Not a perfect one — but a common one, and for this sign the common outweighs the perfect.
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The sign's crisis comes when joy is dragged inward and locked up. The incoming movement runs from outer to inner: pleasure no longer binds one to people but is hoarded for oneself alone. Such closing-off tears one from one's surroundings, and any action taken from this point comes out badly — the step is named misfortune outright. The contrast with the two lower positions is telling: there joy was the consequence of what was done; here it becomes the aim — and at exactly that moment it spoils.
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The second step deepens the source: joy rests no longer on a lucky coincidence but on inner truthfulness. The person is right in essence, and the knowledge of it removes every ground for remorse — past waverings and slips lose their weight. Such joy is steadier than the first: the result may be disputed, the judgments may be alien and cold, but the support is found within, and so the step's outcome is happiness. Rightness here is not a victor's pose but a quiet correspondence between what a person does and what he holds to be true.
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The first joy is born of concord: what was done and what was received coincide; there is no gap between the action and its result. This is the purest source of satisfaction — it depends neither on others' opinions nor on comparison with anyone, which is why it is called happiness without reservations. The harmony of this step is simple in construction: the person wanted exactly what he did, and did exactly what he wanted. The coincidence is rare, and it is worth noticing while it lasts.
The six positions sort through the fate of a single feeling. Below, joy is honest — it grows out of concord and rightness, and is therefore safe. In the middle two distortions lie in wait: appropriation, when pleasure is locked away for oneself, and connivance, when it is handed out to anyone at all. Between them stands the sober compromise of the fourth step, and the top of the sign shows a peaceful dying-down. The sum comes back to the aphorism's condition: joy is fruitful exactly as long as steadfastness keeps it within its banks.