Hexagram 59 as yes or no
Hexagram 59 Dispersing as a yes-or-no answer
As an answer to a yes-or-no question Huan says the situation is already in motion and the real question is what you let go of. Its Judgment is encouraging — success, the king at the temple, favourable to cross the great river, steadiness favourable — but the success it promises comes from dissolving something: a faction, a hoard, a self-protective stance. If 'yes' means holding your present arrangement together as it is, the hexagram does not support that. If it means releasing what has gone rigid so that a wider arrangement can form, it does.
So: yes, provided you are prepared to scatter in order to regather. A changing line in the lower trigram says the dispersal is young — accept help (one), find a firm footing (two), or give up self-interest (three) — and the answer is a cautious yes. A changing line at four or five is the strongest yes in the hexagram: break the clique, make the irrevocable announcement. The top line says the matter is over and the answer is to leave it behind without blame.
The hexagram in brief
Wind over water: dispersing. Success; the king approaches the temple; favourable to cross the great river — scattering rigidity, selfishness and division so that people regroup around something shared.
Dissolve the blockage — ego, faction, hoarded resources — and rebuild on a larger, shared foundation.
The judgment
渙：亨。王假有廟，利涉大川，利貞。Hwân intimates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and success. The king goes to his ancestral temple; and it will be advantageous to cross the great stream. It will be advantageous to be firm and correct.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 渙 Dispersing has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningearly rescue · strong horse · going along
- 九二Nine in the second placehurrying to support · amid dispersal · regret vanishes
- 六三Six in the third placedissolving the self · outward will · no regret
- 六四Six in the fourth placedissolving factions · gathering a hill · great good fortune
- 九五Nine in the fifth placethe great proclamation · like sweat · scattering the stores
- 上九Nine at the topleaving harm behind · far away · no blame
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Does hexagram 59, Dispersing, mean yes or no?
- As an answer to a yes-or-no question Huan says the situation is already in motion and the real question is what you let go of. Its Judgment is encouraging — success, the king at the temple, favourable to cross the great river, steadiness favourable — but the success it promises comes from dissolving something: a faction, a hoard, a self-protective stance. If 'yes' means holding your present arrangement together as it is, the hexagram does not support that. If it means releasing what has gone rigid so that a wider arrangement can form, it does.
- What does Hexagram 59, 渙 Dispersing, mean?
- Wind over water: dispersing. Success; the king approaches the temple; favourable to cross the great river — scattering rigidity, selfishness and division so that people regroup around something shared.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).