Hexagram 43 for love
Hexagram 43 Decisiveness in love and relationships
Guai is the lake lifted up to heaven — the cloudburst about to break. Five strong lines push against the last weak one; the Tuan calls it 'the firm removing the soft' (剛決柔) and adds that it is done 'with strength and with pleasure, decisive yet harmonious' (健而說，決而和). In a relationship this is a moment of clearing: something tolerated too long — a habit, a third presence, an evasion — is about to be named and removed. The judgment's method is open declaration, a sincere warning of the danger, and no recourse to force.
For a question about love the hexagram says the break or the confrontation is coming and is right, but it must be done openly and without cruelty. Line two is the model: alert, not aggressive. Line three is the one entangled with what must go, who must decide inwardly and bear being misunderstood. Line five warns that what you cut away gently keeps coming back. A changing line in the lower trigram asks whether you are ready; one in the upper trigram asks how cleanly you are doing it.
The hexagram in brief
The lake risen to heaven: the cloudburst about to fall. Five yang lines resolve to remove the last yin — declare it openly at court, stay alert, and don't rely on arms.
Be resolute and public about removing what is wrong, but without hatred or violence; strength that is also gentle wins.
The judgment
夬：揚于王庭，孚號，有厲，告自邑，不利即戎，利有攸往。Kwâi requires (in him who would fulfil its meaning) the exhibition (of the culprit's guilt) in the royal court, and a sincere and earnest appeal (for sympathy and support), with a consciousness of the peril (involved in cutting off the criminal). He should (also) make announcement in his own city, and show that it will not be well to have recourse at once to arms. (In this way) there will be advantage in whatever he shall go forward to.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 夬 Decisiveness has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningstrength in the toes · advancing too soon · cannot prevail
- 九二Nine in the second placealarm cry · armed at night · no anxiety
- 九三Nine in the third placestrength in the face · walking alone · soaked but blameless
- 九四Nine in the fourth placeno skin on the buttocks · halting · hears but does not believe
- 九五Nine in the fifth placepurslane · resolute at the centre · not yet bright
- 上六Six at the topno one to call · the last yin · cannot last
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Is hexagram 43, Decisiveness, a good sign for love?
- Guai is the lake lifted up to heaven — the cloudburst about to break. Five strong lines push against the last weak one; the Tuan calls it 'the firm removing the soft' (剛決柔) and adds that it is done 'with strength and with pleasure, decisive yet harmonious' (健而說，決而和). In a relationship this is a moment of clearing: something tolerated too long — a habit, a third presence, an evasion — is about to be named and removed. The judgment's method is open declaration, a sincere warning of the danger, and no recourse to force.
- What does Hexagram 43, 夬 Decisiveness, mean?
- The lake risen to heaven: the cloudburst about to fall. Five yang lines resolve to remove the last yin — declare it openly at court, stay alert, and don't rely on arms.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).