I Ching Hexagram 38: Opposition - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 38, Kui or Opposition, is fire above the lake, two elements sharing one body while moving in opposite directions. Its Judgement grants good fortune in small matters only, and not one of its six changing lines ends in misfortune. That combination makes Hexagram 38 a reading about estrangement inside a bond that still holds, not about a break.

What does I Ching Hexagram 38, Opposition, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 38, called Kui and rendered Opposition in the Wilhelm and Baynes translation, means estrangement between parties who remain bound to each other. This is the hexagram of the shared roof and the divided will. Nothing in Hexagram 38 has been severed: the two halves of the figure stay inside one structure, they simply face away. Readers who draw Hexagram 38 are usually dealing with a colleague who has gone cool, or a family member whose reasoning has stopped making sense to them. The Judgement of Hexagram 38 gives one line of guidance, that small matters bring good fortune, and everything else in the hexagram follows from that limit. Grand gestures fail here. A summit meeting to clear the air fails here. What works in Hexagram 38 is the small, sideways, low-stakes contact that does not force either party to concede a position. Later translators prefer names that soften the adversarial edge: Estrangement, Diverging, Polarising. All point at the same condition, difference that has hardened into distance without yet becoming a break.

The commentary attached to the Judgement of Hexagram 38 supplies the philosophical turn that keeps this hexagram from being merely negative. It observes that heaven and earth are opposed and their work is nonetheless one, that man and woman are opposed and nonetheless seek union, and that all beings stand in opposition to one another, which is precisely how their activities take on order. Opposition in Hexagram 38 is therefore structural, not accidental. Two things cannot be distinct without being opposed in some measure, and distinctness is the precondition of any real meeting. The Miscellaneous Notes make the same point through pairing, glossing Hexagram 37, The Family, as inside and Hexagram 38, Opposition, as outside. Family is the movement inward toward shared ground; Opposition is the movement outward into separate ground. A reader who receives Hexagram 38 has been pushed outside, either by someone else or by their own divergence, and the practical question is not how to get back inside immediately but how to conduct oneself while out there.

Is Hexagram 38, Opposition, a bad hexagram to receive?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, is difficult but not adverse. No line of Hexagram 38 ends in misfortune, and three of the six explicitly promise remorse disappearing, a good end, or good fortune after rain. Practitioners read it as a phase of friction with a resolution built into the text, not as a warning to abandon the matter.

What is the Chinese name of Hexagram 38 and what does Kui mean?

Hexagram 38 is called Kui. The character is written with the eye radical, and commentators connect it to eyes that turn away from one another rather than meeting, which gives Kui its sense of looking apart, being at cross purposes, and mutual misreading. English versions render Kui as Opposition, Estrangement or Diverging.

Where does Hexagram 38, Opposition, sit in the King Wen sequence?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, follows Hexagram 37, The Family, and precedes Hexagram 39, Obstruction. The Sequence commentary explains the placement directly: when the way of the family is exhausted, misunderstanding follows, and opposition in turn produces difficulties. Hexagram 38 is the hinge between domestic order breaking down and the outright obstruction of Hexagram 39.

Which trigrams form Hexagram 38 and why does fire over lake mean Opposition?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, is formed from Li, fire, in the upper trigram and Dui, the lake, in the lower trigram, and the pairing means Opposition because the two elements move in opposite directions while sharing one figure. Fire flames upward and away. Standing water sinks and seeps downward. Put fire above the lake and you have a single body whose top and bottom are actively separating, with no shared destination and no point of contact. In Hexagram 38 nothing collides. The halves recede from one another, which is exactly how estrangement behaves in practice: not an argument but a widening gap that nobody stages. The elemental logic also explains why Hexagram 38 does not destroy itself. Fire above the lake cannot extinguish the lake, and the lake cannot reach up to quench the fire. Both survive their opposition intact. The relationship in Hexagram 38 endures precisely because the two parties are out of each other's reach, which is a mixed comfort and the source of the hexagram's peculiar patience.

The trigram family assignments sharpen the picture further. In the scheme laid out in the Discussion of the Trigrams, Li is the middle daughter and Dui is the youngest daughter, so Hexagram 38 puts two sisters in one house. Wilhelm's commentary draws the traditional inference: they live together, but they belong to different men, and their wills therefore do not go the same way. Read as a social image, Hexagram 38 is about people who share a household, a company or a project by circumstance rather than by choice of one another, and whose loyalties point elsewhere. The two-daughters image is why Hexagram 38 so often shows up for in-law tension, co-founder drift, stepfamily friction and departments forced to share a budget. The attribute reading adds one more layer: Dui is joy and Li is clarity, so the movement of Hexagram 38 is joyousness resting on brightness. Even at its most estranged, this hexagram keeps its eyes open and keeps a certain lightness. That is the resource Hexagram 38 gives you when it gives you almost nothing else.

Which trigram is above and which is below in Hexagram 38, Opposition?

In Hexagram 38, Opposition, the upper trigram is Li, fire, clarity and the clinging, and the lower trigram is Dui, the lake, joy and the joyous. Reading the six lines from the bottom up, Hexagram 38 runs solid, solid, broken, solid, broken, solid, so only the first line stands in a position traditionally correct for its type.

Why does the two daughters image belong to Hexagram 38, Opposition?

The two daughters image belongs to Hexagram 38 because Li is the middle daughter and Dui the youngest daughter in the trigram family, placing two sisters in one house. The traditional gloss is that they live under one roof but their wills point in different directions, which is the social form of the fire and lake divergence in Hexagram 38.

What do joy and clarity add to the reading of Hexagram 38, Opposition?

Joy and clarity are the trigram attributes of Hexagram 38, Opposition, with Dui contributing joyousness below and Li contributing brightness above. The commentary describes the movement as joy clinging to clarity, which is why Hexagram 38 permits good fortune in small matters: the parties can still see accurately and still take pleasure in small exchanges even while estranged.

What are the Judgement and the Image of Hexagram 38, Opposition?

The Judgement of Hexagram 38, Opposition, reads: Opposition. In small matters, good fortune. The Image reads: Above, fire; below, the lake: the image of Opposition. Thus amid all fellowship the superior man retains his individuality. These two lines carry most of the practical instruction in Hexagram 38. The Judgement sets the permitted scale, and it is a strict one. Small matters succeed. Large ones are not forbidden outright, they simply lack the backing that a favorable Judgement would supply. The commentary traces this to the yielding line in the fifth place, the ruling seat of Hexagram 38: a soft ruler in a divided situation can manage modest business and cannot carry a large undertaking against the grain of the moment. The Image then answers a question the Judgement leaves open, which is how to behave toward the other party. The counsel of Hexagram 38 is not to close the gap by merging. It is to stay in company while remaining distinctly yourself. Fire keeps burning above the lake and the lake keeps its own level. Neither pretends to be the other, and that refusal to blur is presented as the correct conduct under Hexagram 38.

The brevity of the Judgement of Hexagram 38 is itself informative. Many hexagrams attach a standard formula: success, perseverance furthers, it furthers one to cross the great water, or it furthers one to see the great man. Hexagram 38 attaches none of these. It grants a narrow good fortune and stops, which is why diviners treat Opposition as a hexagram that withholds momentum. The Image supplies the compensating discipline, and the phrase about retaining individuality amid fellowship is one of the most quoted lines in the whole book. It reverses the usual assumption that harmony requires agreement. Under Hexagram 38 the person who dissolves their own position to end the friction has not resolved the opposition, they have removed one of its terms, and the situation loses the tension that was going to organize it. The Judgement commentary makes the same argument at cosmic scale when it says that all beings stand in opposition and that their activities take on order thereby. Hexagram 38 asks a reader to hold difference steadily and act small while holding it.

Why does Hexagram 38, Opposition, promise good fortune only in small matters?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, promises good fortune only in small matters because its ruling line, the yielding line in the fifth place, is soft where the ruling seat would normally be strong. The commentary reads this as a situation with insufficient force behind it. Modest, low-stakes moves land well under Hexagram 38, while large undertakings lack the backing to carry.

What does the Image of Hexagram 38 mean by retaining individuality?

The Image of Hexagram 38, Opposition, tells the superior man to keep his individuality amid all fellowship, meaning he stays in company without adopting the other party's position to end friction. Under Hexagram 38 the cure for estrangement is not agreement or self-erasure; it is remaining a clearly defined partner that the other side can eventually locate and meet.

Does the Judgement of Hexagram 38 mention crossing the great water?

No. The Judgement of Hexagram 38, Opposition, is four characters in Chinese and contains only the name and the phrase about small matters bringing good fortune. It offers no advantage in crossing the great water and no advice to see the great man, which is why Hexagram 38 is read as a moment that supplies no momentum for large ventures.

What do changing lines one, two and three of Hexagram 38, Opposition, mean?

Lines one, two and three of Hexagram 38, Opposition, cover the opening of an estrangement, the informal repair attempt, and the humiliating blockage. Line one, a strong line at the bottom, reads that remorse disappears, that if you lose your horse you should not run after it because it will return of its own accord, and that when you see evil people you should guard yourself against blame. This is the non-pursuit instruction of Hexagram 38, and it is the single most practically used line in the hexagram. Line two, strong in the second place, reads that one meets his lord in a narrow street, no blame. The formal channel is shut, so the meeting happens sideways in a back alley, and the text explicitly clears this of impropriety. Line three, yielding in the third place, is the harshest text in Hexagram 38: one sees the wagon dragged back and the oxen halted, and a man whose hair and nose have been cut off, the marks of ancient judicial punishment. Then it turns: not a good beginning, but a good end. Line three of Hexagram 38 is public humiliation that does not stay permanent.

The structural readings behind these three lines are specific. Line one of Hexagram 38 is the only line in the hexagram standing in a position correct for its type, a strong line in the first place, which is why it can afford patience while everything above it is misplaced. Its lost horse returns because the situation itself is still coherent at the base. Line two is strong in a yielding place and correspondence carries it: it holds the proper correspondence with the yielding fifth line, the ruler, so the lord it meets in the narrow street is that fifth line, and the meeting is legitimate even though the setting is not. Line three is yielding, sits in a place that calls for strength, and is pressed from below and above by the strong lines in the second and fourth places, so it is squeezed from both sides. Its correspondence runs to the strong top line, which is the line that will later mistake it for a wagon full of devils. The good end promised to line three of Hexagram 38 is that recognition arriving at the top of the hexagram, once the suspicion there burns out.

What does the lost horse in line one of Hexagram 38 mean?

The lost horse in line one of Hexagram 38, Opposition, means something that has drifted away at the start of an estrangement and will return without being chased. The instruction is not to pursue. Under Hexagram 38, pursuit at the opening stage hardens the divergence, while leaving space allows the person, client or opportunity to come back on its own.

Why does line two of Hexagram 38 meet the lord in a narrow street?

Line two of Hexagram 38, Opposition, meets the lord in a narrow street because the formal route of approach is closed during estrangement. The strong second line and the yielding fifth line correspond properly, so the connection is real; only the setting is irregular. The text adds no blame, which sanctions the unofficial, low-visibility approach as correct conduct in Hexagram 38.

Which hexagrams do lines one, two and three of Hexagram 38 change into?

Line one of Hexagram 38, Opposition, changes it to Hexagram 64, Before Completion. Line two changes it to Hexagram 21, Biting Through. Line three changes it to Hexagram 14, Great Possession, which is the widest swing in the hexagram, moving from the mutilated traveler of the line text to abundance held by a single yielding ruler.

What do changing lines four, five and six of Hexagram 38, Opposition, mean?

Lines four, five and six of Hexagram 38, Opposition, cover the found ally, the ruler's reconciliation, and the collapse of a projection. Line four, strong in the fourth place, reads that isolated through opposition one meets a like-minded man with whom one can associate in good faith, and that despite the danger there is no blame. Line five, yielding in the fifth place and the ruler of Hexagram 38, reads that remorse disappears, that the companion bites his way through the wrappings, and asks how it could be a mistake to go to him. The wrappings are the layers of misunderstanding that had sealed the two parties off, and it is the other person who chews through them. Line six, strong at the top, is the most vivid text in Hexagram 38: isolated through opposition, one sees one's companion as a pig covered with dirt and as a wagon full of devils, one first draws a bow and then lays it aside, because he is not a robber but a suitor who will woo at the right time. As one goes, rain falls, and good fortune comes.

Line four of Hexagram 38 is an alliance without correspondence. It faces line one, and both are strong, so there is no formal attraction between them; the association is chosen rather than given, which is why the text specifies good faith and admits the danger. In a reading this is the ally you recruit rather than the ally you inherit. Line five is the ruling line, and its correspondence with the strong second line is what makes the reconciliation possible; the companion who bites through the wrappings is that second line, the one who earlier met his lord in the narrow street. The initiative in Hexagram 38 therefore comes from below, and the ruler's task is only to let it in. Line six sits at the top of Li, where clarity has burned to the point of hallucination, and it misreads line three, its own correspondent, as filth and demons. Laying the bow aside is the turn of the whole hexagram. Rain then falls because tension between opposites discharges when they finally join, and Hexagram 38 ends wet, cooled and reconciled.

Which line is the ruler of Hexagram 38, Opposition?

The yielding line in the fifth place is the ruler of Hexagram 38, Opposition. Its softness in the ruling seat is the reason the Judgement of Hexagram 38 limits good fortune to small matters, and its correspondence with the strong second line is the channel through which the estrangement is repaired when line five is the changing line.

Why is the top line the most vivid text in Hexagram 38, Opposition?

The top line of Hexagram 38, Opposition, is the most vivid because it stages the extreme of estrangement as pure projection: a companion seen as a pig covered with dirt and a wagon full of devils, met with a drawn bow. It sits at the top of the fire trigram, where clarity has overheated into suspicion, and the line resolves when the bow is laid aside.

What does the rain at the end of Hexagram 38 mean?

The rain at the top line of Hexagram 38, Opposition, marks the discharge of accumulated tension between the two poles. In the imagery of the book, rain falls when yin and yang finally meet, so the shower signals that the estrangement of Hexagram 38 has released rather than been argued away, and good fortune follows the release.

What are the nuclear, opposite and inverse hexagrams of Hexagram 38, Opposition?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 38, Opposition, is Hexagram 63, After Completion; the opposite hexagram, formed by changing every line, is Hexagram 39, Obstruction; and the inverse, formed by turning the figure upside down, is Hexagram 37, The Family. The nucleus is the most striking. Taking lines two, three and four of Hexagram 38 gives the trigram Li, and lines three, four and five give the trigram Kan, so water sits over fire at the core, which is Hexagram 63. That hexagram has every one of its six lines in the position traditionally correct for its type, perfect order. Hexagram 38, by contrast, has only its first line correctly placed, five of six out of position. The most disordered surface in this pair conceals the most ordered core. The opposite hexagram tells you what Opposition is not: Hexagram 39, Obstruction, is a genuine impasse with danger ahead and a mountain behind, while Hexagram 38 keeps everyone mobile and merely misaligned. The inverse restores the pair the sequence intends, since Hexagram 38 turned over is Hexagram 37, The Family.

The relationship between Hexagram 38 and Hexagram 39 is doubly instructive because Obstruction is both the opposite hexagram and the next in the King Wen order. The Sequence commentary states plainly that opposition produces difficulties, so the figure that is the structural inverse of Hexagram 38 at the level of lines is also its likely consequence in time. Left alone, the estrangement of Hexagram 38 hardens into the blocked terrain of Hexagram 39, where the counsel changes from acting small to turning back and working on yourself. That gives Hexagram 38 a quiet urgency: the small matters have to be attended to now, because the window in which they still work is what separates Opposition from Obstruction. The pairing with Hexagram 37, The Family, works the other way. Turn Opposition upside down and you get the household in good order, with each person in their proper role. The two hexagrams are one figure seen from two ends, which is the tradition's way of saying that estrangement and family are the same relationship viewed from inside or from outside, exactly as the Miscellaneous Notes gloss them.

Why does the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 38 matter to a reading?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 38, Opposition, is Hexagram 63, After Completion, in which all six lines stand in correct positions. Since Hexagram 38 itself has only one line correctly placed, the nucleus tells a reader that an orderly arrangement already exists underneath the visible discord, and that the parties are more compatible in structure than they appear on the surface.

How does Hexagram 39, Obstruction, relate to Hexagram 38, Opposition?

Hexagram 39, Obstruction, is both the opposite hexagram of Hexagram 38, Opposition, produced by changing all six lines, and the hexagram that follows it in the King Wen sequence. The Sequence commentary says opposition leads to difficulties, so Hexagram 39 shows what Hexagram 38 becomes when the estrangement is left to set rather than worked at small scale.

What does the pairing of Hexagram 37 and Hexagram 38 tell a reader?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, turned upside down is Hexagram 37, The Family, so the two are a single figure read from opposite ends. The Miscellaneous Notes gloss The Family as inside and Opposition as outside. For a reader this means the estrangement of Hexagram 38 is happening within a bond that still has a family structure available to it.

What does Hexagram 38, Opposition, mean for a relationship question?

For a relationship question, Hexagram 38, Opposition, describes two people who are still together and no longer aligned. The fire and lake image is precise about the mechanism: neither party is attacking, they are moving in different directions inside the same arrangement, and the distance grows without anyone deciding it should. This is the hexagram of the couple who have stopped fighting and started living parallel lives, and of the siblings who are civil at holidays and never call. Hexagram 38 rarely answers a relationship question with a break, because the figure holds together and because Hexagram 37, The Family, is its inverse. What it does say is that reconciliation will not be achieved through the front door. Line two of Hexagram 38 meets the lord in a narrow street, and that is the model: an unplanned coffee, a small favor, a message about something else entirely. The Judgement's restriction to small matters is a relationship instruction as much as a strategic one. Under Hexagram 38 a proposal, an ultimatum or a long letter is a large matter and will not be received; a small, unweighted contact is the size the moment can carry.

Two further features of Hexagram 38 matter for love and family readings. The first is the top line, which names the specific way relationships fail here. The other person is seen as a pig covered with dirt and a wagon full of devils, an image of projection so extreme that the text itself corrects it: he is not a robber, he is a suitor. Practitioners use this line for the moment when a reader's account of their partner or relative has become a monster story, and the counsel is to lay the bow aside before testing the account. The second is the two daughters image. Hexagram 38 is not about two rivals fighting over one thing; it is about two people whose primary loyalties lie in different places while their daily lives are shared. That fits stepfamilies, couples whose careers pull opposite ways, and friendships that drifted because circumstances diverged rather than because anything happened. For those questions Hexagram 38 does not ask who is right, since the divergence is real on both sides and the individuality clause of the Image tells each party to keep it.

Does Hexagram 38, Opposition, mean a breakup?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, does not usually indicate a breakup. The figure keeps fire and lake inside one hexagram, its inverse is Hexagram 37, The Family, and no line ends in misfortune. Hexagram 38 points to estrangement and misreading within a bond that continues, with the top line ending in rain and good fortune once the suspicion is set down.

What does Hexagram 38, Opposition, say about family conflict?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, reads family conflict through its two daughters image, two people under one roof whose loyalties point elsewhere. That fits in-law tension, stepfamily friction and adult siblings pulled apart by their own households. Hexagram 38 counsels small contact rather than a family meeting, and it does not ask the parties to agree as the price of staying related.

Which changing line of Hexagram 38 is best for a reconciliation question?

Line five of Hexagram 38, Opposition, is the strongest reconciliation line. It says remorse disappears, the companion bites his way through the wrappings, and how could going to him be a mistake. The other party takes the initiative through the layers of misunderstanding, and line five turns Hexagram 38 into Hexagram 10, Treading, which calls for careful conduct as the contact resumes.

How does Hexagram 38, Opposition, read for a decision and for work?

For a decision, Hexagram 38, Opposition, answers not at scale rather than no. The Judgement grants good fortune in small matters and attaches none of the usual formulas about crossing the great water, so a reader deciding on a large commitment is being told the conditions will not carry it. Split the question. The part that can be done small, reversibly and without requiring the other party to concede anything is the part Hexagram 38 supports. For work questions, Hexagram 38 is the hexagram of the organization pulling in two directions: two founders with different visions, two departments sharing one budget, a manager and a team whose ideas of the job have quietly diverged. Line one gives the most usable instruction in a work context, since the lost horse that returns of its own accord covers the client who has gone quiet, the candidate who withdrew, and the opportunity that seemed to vanish. Chasing them under Hexagram 38 makes the divergence permanent. Line three covers the deal that gets dragged back with public embarrassment attached, and that humiliating line is the one that changes Hexagram 38 into Hexagram 14, Great Possession.

Two applications deserve care under Hexagram 38. Negotiations and contracts sit uneasily here, because Hexagram 38 describes parties who are reading each other wrongly, and an agreement signed in that condition tends to encode the misunderstanding rather than settle it. If line two is changing, the informal side conversation is the right instrument and the resulting Hexagram 21, Biting Through, indicates the matter later gets decided rather than negotiated. Litigation and formal escalation are the second caution. Hexagram 38 is not Hexagram 6, Conflict, and treating an estrangement as a dispute imports machinery the situation does not need. The line that models correct escalation is line six, where the bow is drawn and then laid aside once the companion is recognized as a suitor rather than a robber. On the constructive side, line four is the work line for anyone isolated inside an organization: it finds a like-minded person and associates with them in good faith despite the danger, an alliance built by choice rather than by structure. That line turns Hexagram 38 into Hexagram 41, Decrease, so the alliance costs something and the cost is expected.

Should you sign a contract when Hexagram 38, Opposition, appears?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, advises against signing anything large while the parties are misreading each other, since its Judgement limits good fortune to small matters. A narrow, short, reversible agreement fits what Hexagram 38 supports. A binding commitment made under Opposition tends to lock in the misunderstanding rather than resolve it.

What does Hexagram 38, Opposition, say about a job with two bosses who disagree?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, matches that situation exactly through its two daughters image, two authorities under one roof whose wills go different ways. The counsel from the Image of Hexagram 38 is to keep your own position clearly defined rather than dissolving into either camp, and to conduct business in small, unweighted increments while the divergence lasts.

How is Hexagram 38, Opposition, different from Hexagram 12, Standstill, at work?

Hexagram 12, Standstill, is total blockage in which heaven and earth no longer communicate and the inferior element is ascendant. Hexagram 38, Opposition, keeps communication open and merely misaligned, which is why Hexagram 38 still permits small matters to succeed while Standstill advises withdrawal and waiting out the period.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hexagram 38 in the I Ching?

Hexagram 38 in the I Ching is Kui, translated Opposition by Wilhelm and elsewhere as Estrangement, Diverging or Polarising. It is built from the trigram Li, fire, above the trigram Dui, the lake, and its Judgement runs simply: Opposition. In small matters, good fortune. Hexagram 38 describes people or forces that are joined but pulling in different directions, and the traditional counsel is to work at small scale until the pull eases.

What are the trigrams of Hexagram 38, Opposition?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, is the trigram Li, fire and clarity, in the upper place, over the trigram Dui, the lake and joy, in the lower place. Fire climbs and lake water sinks, so the two halves of Hexagram 38 move away from each other while occupying one figure. In the family scheme of the trigrams, Li is the middle daughter and Dui the youngest daughter, which gives Hexagram 38 its classic picture of two sisters under one roof whose wills do not run together.

What is the Judgement of Hexagram 38, Opposition?

The Judgement of Hexagram 38, Opposition, is four characters long in Chinese and reads: Opposition. In small matters, good fortune. It offers no promise about crossing the great water and no advice to see the great man, which sets Hexagram 38 apart from most hexagrams that carry a favorable line. The restriction to small matters comes from the yielding line in the fifth place, the ruling seat: a soft ruler in a divided situation can hold small things together but cannot carry a large undertaking.

Is Hexagram 38, Opposition, a bad answer to receive?

Hexagram 38, Opposition, is uncomfortable rather than bad. Not one of its six line texts ends in misfortune: line one says remorse disappears, lines two and four say no blame, line three promises a good end after a bad beginning, line five asks how going could be a mistake, and line six ends with rain falling and good fortune. Hexagram 38 describes friction, suspicion and misreading, and then it describes those things resolving, which is why practitioners treat it as a difficult passage rather than a verdict.

What do the six changing lines of Hexagram 38 turn it into?

The six changing lines of Hexagram 38, Opposition, produce these hexagrams: line one gives Hexagram 64, Before Completion; line two gives Hexagram 21, Biting Through; line three gives Hexagram 14, Great Possession; line four gives Hexagram 41, Decrease; line five gives Hexagram 10, Treading; line six gives Hexagram 54, The Marrying Maiden. The swing from line three is the widest in Hexagram 38, moving from the mutilated traveler to the abundance of Great Possession.

How is Hexagram 38, Opposition, different from Hexagram 6, Conflict?

Hexagram 6, Conflict, is open dispute with a named adversary and a court to go to, and its Judgement warns that carrying the matter through brings misfortune. Hexagram 38, Opposition, has no adversary and no court. The parties in Hexagram 38 are still on the same side, still in the same house, and the trouble is divergence and misunderstanding rather than a claim pressed against someone. Conflict asks you to stop pressing; Opposition asks you to stop assuming you have been read correctly.

Which changing line of Hexagram 38 is the hardest?

Line three is the hardest line of Hexagram 38, Opposition. Its text describes a wagon dragged back, oxen halted, and a man whose hair and nose have been cut off, using the language of ancient corporal punishment for public humiliation. The line sits as a yielding line squeezed between the strong lines in the second and fourth places, so it is blocked from both sides. Its saving clause is short and firm: not a good beginning, but a good end.