Hexagram 44, line 6
上九Line 6 of Encounter
Nine at the top · 姤 gòu
爻辭 The line text
姤其角，吝，无咎。The sixth line, undivided, shows its subject receiving others on his horns. There will be occasion for regret, but there will be no error.
姤其角，上窮吝也。'He receives others on his horns:'—he is exhausted at his greatest height, and there will be cause for regret.
In plain words
At the top: 'meeting with the horns — regret, no blame' (姤其角，吝，無咎). The horns are the hardest, highest, most unyielding part of the animal; the top line is yang at the extreme of Qian, far from the yin at the bottom and incapable of meeting anyone except by butting. In a hexagram named Encounter, this line encounters nothing. The small Image: it is exhausted at its height, hence regret (上窮吝也). Yet no blame, because the one who stays too hard to be approached is at least not corrupted by what enters below.
If this line is changing
You have made yourself so unapproachable that nothing reaches you, good or bad; accept the loneliness of that as the price of your integrity, but do not mistake it for a victory.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang line that moves when cast.
- It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.
- It belongs to the upper trigram 乾 Qian (the Creative) (heaven).
- It has no correspondence (無應) with line 3: both lines are yang, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.
之卦 When this line moves
姤 Encounter becomes ䷛ 28 大過 Great Excess
The lake drowning the trees: the ridgepole bends under too much weight. An extraordinary situation, strong in the middle and weak at the ends — something must give way or be done.
What it becomes28 · 大過 Great Excessdà guòThe six lines of 姤 Encounter
- 初六Six at the beginningmetal brake · the first yin · the lean pig
- 九二Nine in the second placefish in the wrapper · containment · not for the guests
- 九三Nine in the third placeno skin on the buttocks · halting · not yet drawn in
- 九四Nine in the fourth placeno fish in the wrapper · lost the people · trouble arises
- 九五Nine in the fifth placewillow sheltering the gourd · hidden brilliance · falls from heaven
- 上九Nine at the topmeeting with the horns · exhausted at the top · regret but no blame
Read 姤 Encounter for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine at the top of hexagram 44, Encounter, mean?
- At the top: 'meeting with the horns — regret, no blame' (姤其角，吝，無咎). The horns are the hardest, highest, most unyielding part of the animal; the top line is yang at the extreme of Qian, far from the yin at the bottom and incapable of meeting anyone except by butting. In a hexagram named Encounter, this line encounters nothing. The small Image: it is exhausted at its height, hence regret (上窮吝也). Yet no blame, because the one who stays too hard to be approached is at least not corrupted by what enters below.
- What does hexagram 44 become when line 6 changes?
- Encounter becomes hexagram 28, 大過 Great Excess: The lake drowning the trees: the ridgepole bends under too much weight. An extraordinary situation, strong in the middle and weak at the ends — something must give way or be done.
- Is line 6 of Encounter in its correct place?
- It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).