Hexagram 38 for work
Hexagram 38 Divergence for work and career
At work Kui is the hexagram of parties pulling apart: a partnership whose aims have diverged, a negotiation where each side suspects the other, a team split into factions. The Judgment is modest — 'small matters go well' — and the commentary explains why that is not a counsel of despair: 'heaven and earth are opposed, yet their work is the same'. Difference is workable if it is handled in small steps and without insisting on agreement about everything. The Great Image's 'agree, yet differ' is the negotiator's rule.
The lines give the moves. One: do not chase a departed partner or boycott an unpleasant one. Two: use the side channel when the formal one is blocked. Three: when you are being obstructed and maligned, endure; the one who doubts you will come round. Four: find the person in the same isolated position and build trust there. Five: the leader has one reliable counterpart, and that is enough to proceed. Six: the moment before a breakthrough looks like the worst of the hostility, and the breakthrough is recognising the other side's intent. Lower lines say hold position; upper lines say the resolution is near.
The hexagram in brief
Fire rising and the lake sinking: two moving apart. Opposition — good fortune only in small matters; yet difference has its uses, as heaven and earth differ and still work together.
Don't force unity; find small common ground, keep your individuality, and let misunderstandings dissolve with time.
The judgment
睽：小事吉。Khwei indicates that, (notwithstanding the condition of things which it denotes), in small matters there will (still) be good success.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 睽 Divergence has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningthe lost horse returns · do not chase · meeting bad people
- 九二Nine in the second placemeeting in a lane · the indirect path · not off course
- 六三Six in the third placethe cart dragged back · humiliation · a bad start and a good end
- 九四Nine in the fourth placeisolated · meeting the good man · sincerity exchanged
- 六五Six in the fifth placebiting through skin · kin and partner · going forward
- 上九Nine at the topthe mud-covered pig · a cart of ghosts · doubts dissolve in rain
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 38, Divergence, mean for a career question?
- At work Kui is the hexagram of parties pulling apart: a partnership whose aims have diverged, a negotiation where each side suspects the other, a team split into factions. The Judgment is modest — 'small matters go well' — and the commentary explains why that is not a counsel of despair: 'heaven and earth are opposed, yet their work is the same'. Difference is workable if it is handled in small steps and without insisting on agreement about everything. The Great Image's 'agree, yet differ' is the negotiator's rule.
- What does Hexagram 38, 睽 Divergence, mean?
- Fire rising and the lake sinking: two moving apart. Opposition — good fortune only in small matters; yet difference has its uses, as heaven and earth differ and still work together.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).