Hexagram 54 for work
Hexagram 54 Marrying the Younger Sister for work and career
At work Gui Mei is the hexagram of the subordinate arrangement: the junior partner in a venture, the acquired company, the role taken on someone else's terms. The Great Image counsels the superior person to 'consider the end and know what will wear out' — to look at how such an arrangement finishes before agreeing to how it starts. The judgment's warning is against pushing for more than the position allows.
The lines are the stances available inside it. One is the capable junior who serves well and may advance; two sees the limits and keeps a recluse's constancy; three overreaches and accepts the junior place late. Four declines the wrong offer and waits; five is the senior party who does not pull rank and so makes the partnership workable; six is collaboration kept up in form when the substance has gone. A changing line in the lower trigram asks how you conduct yourself in a lesser role; one in the upper trigram asks whether to wait, to yield rank, or to admit the basket is empty.
The hexagram in brief
Thunder over the lake: the younger sister married as a secondary wife. Undertakings bring misfortune; nothing is favourable — a relationship or position entered on unequal terms must be managed with great care.
Know the limits of a subordinate role; keep your dignity, expect little, and don't force what the situation won't give.
The judgment
歸妹：征凶，无攸利。Kwei Mei indicates that (under the conditions which it denotes) action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 歸妹 Marrying the Younger Sister has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningsecondary wife · lame but walking · service
- 九二Nine in the second placeone-eyed sight · the recluse · unchanged constancy
- 六三Six in the third placewaiting to be taken · the wrong footing · settling for less
- 九四Nine in the fourth placemissing the date · deliberate delay · the right time
- 六五Six in the fifth placeDi Yi's sister · plainer sleeves · moon nearly full
- 上六Six at the topempty basket · bloodless sheep · form without substance
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 54, Marrying the Younger Sister, mean for a career question?
- At work Gui Mei is the hexagram of the subordinate arrangement: the junior partner in a venture, the acquired company, the role taken on someone else's terms. The Great Image counsels the superior person to 'consider the end and know what will wear out' — to look at how such an arrangement finishes before agreeing to how it starts. The judgment's warning is against pushing for more than the position allows.
- What does Hexagram 54, 歸妹 Marrying the Younger Sister, mean?
- Thunder over the lake: the younger sister married as a secondary wife. Undertakings bring misfortune; nothing is favourable — a relationship or position entered on unequal terms must be managed with great care.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).