I Ching Dui Meaning: Hexagram 58 Explained

Dui 兌 sounds pleasant. Lake, joy, the mouth, speaking, being glad. Students drawing it often translate at once: this matter will be very pleasant.

Pleasant can be there. Dui itself wrote coming Dui is unfortunate, drawn Dui, sincerity in Bo 剝 is dangerous. Joy is a good thing. Joy used in the wrong place is like drowning. A lake can flood people.

Recognize the hexagram first. Dui as Lake: Dui above and below. Two mouths stacked: communication will be much, the atmosphere will open, words easily too many. It is not Kun (Oppression) 困. Kun is Lake over Water: Dui above Kan, the lake leaking into water, exhaustion. It is also not Lin 臨. Lin is Earth over Lake, Kun above. Dui is pure Dui. The core is speech, and in the Changes speech is joy. The sound can be remembered as “yue,” meaning joy, talking someone round, making people willing.

The Xu Gua says: 「入而後說之，故受之以兌。兌者，說也。」 Enter, then there is joy, so Dui follows. Dui means joy / speech. Before it is Xun 巽: entered, then there is joy. Not yet entered, already smiling at the door: that is coming Dui, not true joy. This sentence is very useful in divination: you have not gone in, and you first please: the hexagram does not eat that.

Dui: the firm in the center, yielding outside — joy must be beneficial to persist

The Tuan says: 「兌，說也。剛中而柔外。說以利貞。是以順乎天而應乎人。」 Dui is joy. The firm in the center, yielding outside. Joy, beneficial to persist. Thus following Heaven, answering people. Bone in the middle, the outside soft. Joy must be beneficial to what is correct. Then you can follow Heaven and answer people. Missing the firm in the center, yielding outside becomes pleasing. Missing yielding outside, the firm in the center becomes wrecking the room. Both sides are needed.

The judgment is short: 「亨。利貞。」 Opening. Beneficial to persist. It can open, on the condition of correctness. Dui’s opening comes fast, because people like being spoken to comfortably. Correct or not is this hexagram’s doorkeeper. Incorrect joy: the opening is short. After it, danger, misfortune, being led.

The Xiang says: 「麗澤，兌。君子以朋友講習。」 Two lakes adjoining, Dui. The superior person discusses and practices with friends. Two lakes connected, nourishing each other. Friends making a principle clear, practicing a skill: Dui’s best use. Draw Dui: it suits talking, teaching, speaking things open. It does not suit turning discussion into mutual praise at a drinking table. That is already walking toward drawn Dui.

In class I first ask: this time’s joy — is it harmonious, sincere, coming, or drawn? Four characters, and the verdict flips.

Career relies on the mouth, and fears only the mouth

Ask about career and draw Dui: the occasion leans communication — negotiation, a pitch, customer service, teaching, PR, an interview, talking a stuck person back. The mouth is a tool; the lake is atmosphere. Atmosphere right, the matter will move. This hexagram suits opening talk, meeting, putting terms on the table to say. Staying silent wastes Dui.

Wealth is not see Dui, money comes in. Dui can be the meal before a deal, and can be only eating, no deal. Harmonious Dui, sincere Dui: money and trust come together. Coming Dui: you go over to smile; the other takes your smile, and may not pay. Sincerity in Bo: putting trust in a side that will peel you: there is danger. Bo in business is common: terms clearly scraping you, and because the other person talks well you still believe “we are friends.”

Nine in the fourth: 「商兌未寧，介疾有喜。」 Deliberating Dui, not yet at rest; intervening in illness, there is joy. Shang 商 is weighing, measuring. Joy not yet settled: you must jam a jie 介 between liking and caution. Intervening in illness: like walling off a bit of disease. There is joy, because you were not swallowed in one gulp of joy. Draw nine in the fourth: a contract can be talked. Do not sign tonight. Treat not-at-rest as information, not as spoiling the mood.

Speaking trades, teaching, consulting, sales: natal or asking about career, meeting Dui is reasonable. Reasonable does not mean every sentence should be said. Above and below both Dui: words will double. After doubling, set a limit yourself. Otherwise the next hexagram is Huan 渙: spoken, people scatter. A layer further, Jie 節 will come to manage you. This line in the sixty-four hexagrams is connected.

Dui in love: joy is real; coming Dui is going over to perform

Ask about love and draw Dui: in the relationship there is joy, words, wanting to be near. This is good material. If you are single and draw Dui, the occasion will be relatively light: chat, a gathering, teasing each other. You can answer joy. Do not yourself be the person of “coming Dui.”

Coming Dui, six in the third. Yin in a yang place, going over to please. Unfortunate. Not “initiative is unfortunate.” Going over to make someone glad, motive skewed. Pursuit is allowed. Flattery, lowering yourself, stacking gifts for a smile: coming Dui. The other has not asked, and you wrap a whole field of gladness and send it: afterward easy to be looked down on, and easy to empty yourself.

Drawn Dui, the upper six. Drawn into joy. Outside someone is pulling your joy: a person who talks well, a handsome scene, talk that makes you feel needed. The line text is only 「引兌」— drawn Dui — no fortune or misfortune written; old notes mostly take it as not looking well. The uppermost yin: joy already has no firm in the center to govern it. Draw the upper six: first ask, this gladness, who is pulling me? Does the one pulling want me to hand over persistence?

If you are already together, Dui encourages discussion and practice: speak clearly, discuss life as friends. Harmonious Dui is fortunate: each other’s joy is blended, not pressing people. Sincere Dui is fortunate, regret vanishes: joy inside trust, old regret can go. The illness in love that most looks like Dui is turning communication into performance: only saying what the other loves to hear, not the true. Yielding outside without the firm in the center: joy finished, the matter did not move, or moved toward Bo.

Nine in the fifth: 「孚于剝，有厲。」 Sincerity in Bo; there is danger. Trust placed in peeling. Bo is shaving, scraping. The object can be a person who wears you down, or a relationship scraping away your principles. There is danger: a warning. Still time to pull sincerity back a little. Bo in romance is not necessarily infidelity. More often: to keep joy, you yield sleep, friends, a bottom line, layer by layer.

These lines, in class, must be able to be separated

Initial nine: 和兌，吉. Harmonious Dui; fortunate. Joy at the bottom is harmony. Not competing, not stabbing, not grabbing to be the most interesting person. Fortunate. Draw the initial nine: flatten the tone, keep the occasion where everyone can still speak. Harmony is not no opinion. Opinion that does not injure the room.

Nine in the second: 孚兌，吉，悔亡. Sincere Dui; fortunate; regret vanishes. The firm in the center. Joy built on sincerity. Fortunate, regret vanishes. This is Dui’s spine. Trust first, then speak so it is heard. Draw nine in the second: bring out evidence, a true heart, a promise you can keep, and atmosphere will come by itself. Do not make atmosphere first and patch credit after. That is doing it backward.

Six in the third: 來兌，凶. Coming Dui; unfortunate. Going over to please. Unfortunate. Draw six in the third: pull the stretched hand back half an inch. What the other wants, wait for the other to open the mouth. What you give, give at a fair price. Do not give into begging.

Nine in the fourth: 商兌未寧，介疾有喜. Still deliberating, the heart not at rest. Wall liking off a little, like preventing illness: instead there is joy. Draw nine in the fourth: it suits bargaining, saying the discomfort. Not at rest is not a bad sign. Still in Dui, not yet Dui-ed through.

Nine in the fifth: 孚于剝，有厲. In position and in danger. The direction of trust is wrong. Draw nine in the fifth: check whom you are believing, what you are handing over for joy. There is danger is now, not already dead. Changing the object of trust matters more than adding one more kind word.

Upper six: 引兌. Drawn into joy. Draw the upper six: fewer appointments, fewer clicks, fewer decisions when the wine is warm. Who is drawing, look at that before whether you yourself are glad.

In class I teach Dui as a technique of the mouth, not as a mood

Communication, negotiation, speaking, company: ask and draw Dui, the topic is right. Right, and you still do it by the line. You cannot only manufacture joy.

I have students use three checks:

1. Before opening the mouth this time, do I have the firm in the center? Are principles there. Yielding without principles is the warmup of coming Dui.
2. The other person’s joy: with me, or drawing me? Together: adjoining lakes. Drawing me: the upper six.
3. After speaking, is there practice? Friends discuss and practice: spoken, then drill, land it. Only speak, no practice: the lake will stink.

Dui in modern life is too much: messages, stickers, dinners, mutual praise in public. Dui does not tell you to be a person who never smiles. It tells you joy beneficial to persist. Correct joy, people forget tiredness; the Tuan even says joy in facing difficulty, the people forget death. Incorrect joy, people forget they have an axe, and the next station is Xun’s upper nine, or Huan.

Related: I Ching Xun Meaning | Hexagram 57 How to Read: Wind, How to Enter and Yield Without Losing Yourself, I Ching Jie Meaning | Hexagram 60 How to Read: Limitation, Measure Without Bitter Restraint. After joy people scatter; how scattering reads, see Huan after. If you ask how the mouth at home is used: I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read: The Family, Marriage and Ordering the House.

I Ching Dui FAQ

Is Dui a peach-blossom hexagram, a social hexagram?

There can be peach blossom, because joy, the mouth, a lake all relate to closeness. First it is a communication hexagram. Ask about an exam, teaching, reconciliation: Dui appears just as often. See Dui and jump to ambiguity, and you read discussion as romance. The topic has changed.

If I draw Dui, is a negotiation a sure win?

The atmosphere is friendlier to you. That is not the same as terms friendlier to you. Harmonious Dui, sincere Dui: you can talk. Coming Dui: you will yield until it hurts. Deliberating Dui, not yet at rest: this happens to be a good line — not yet persuaded, still joy. A sure win: Dui itself does not say that.

What is the difference between coming Dui and showing goodwill on your own?

Showing goodwill can be harmonious Dui, sincere Dui: I state the meaning clearly, trust is there. Coming Dui is coming in order to be liked, your own seat not there, only sending a smile. One has bone. One only sends a lake. The other person can feel the difference. The hexagram feels it more.

Sincerity in Bo: did I meet a petty person?

Often. It can also be putting trust in a structure that is peeling you: a platform with a heavy cut, a relationship that only scrapes your time, a partnership that makes you glad and keeps shaving your capital. First change “where sincerity is placed,” then name the petty person. Only scold people, and Bo is still there.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.