I Ching Gou Meaning: Hexagram 44 Explained

Guai 夬 is deciding. After deciding you will meet. Meeting is Gou 姤. Students drawing Gou fall into two extremes most: one treats it as the true match arriving, ready to marry; one treats it as bad luck, sure there will be an affair. Both are too full. Gou is meeting. You can meet, and not necessarily keep, still less necessarily marry.

The picture is Heaven over Wind, Qian above Xun. Heaven above — the firm; wind below — entering, one yin just born. Five yang above; a yin appears at the very bottom, yin coming to meet the firm. Wind traveling under Heaven meets many things, and drills in fast. Many people write it as Xiao Xu 小畜, Wind over Heaven. Xiao Xu is Xun above Qian: wind in Heaven, gathering, dense clouds that do not rain. Reverse above and below and when you should guard a meeting you go to talk storing, and yin has already come in from under the feet.

Gou: after deciding there must be a meeting

The Xu Gua says: 「決必有遇，故受之以姤。姤者，遇也。」 After deciding there must be meeting, so Gou follows. Gou means meeting. The old yin just decided away, a new meeting comes. Not the cosmos immediately sending you a better one. An empty seat will be bumped into. Draw Gou: in the matter you asked about there is a sudden encounter — a person, a chance, a message, a relationship you did not put on the calendar.

The Tuan says: 「姤，遇也，柔遇剛也。」 Gou is meeting: the yielding meets the firm. Not the firm going to marry the yielding. The yielding arrived first. This sentence matters for divination. Gou’s initiative often is not on the side you think. You think you are choosing; that yin has already walked to the first line.

The judgment is harder: 「女壯，勿用取女。」 The woman is strong; do not use taking a wife. This “woman” is not cursing all women. It is this kind of meeting: yin is only one, the coming is strong, not suitable as a principal wife, as the sole basis of a formal partnership. Take is marry, and also take to use. An encounter can be met. Do not at once make it a title, an exclusive, your whole tomorrow.

The Xiang says: 「天下有風，姤。后以施命誥四方。」 Wind under Heaven, Gou. The sovereign issues commands and announces to the four quarters. Wind is already under Heaven. A person in position must use clear commands to announce. A meeting has come: rules must be in place first, not feeling. Love is so; business is so.

Career and wealth: a chance has come — receive it, do not throw a banquet

Ask about career and draw Gou: commonly a sudden order, a sudden person, a sudden opening. You can meet, can talk. Nine in the second: 「包有魚，無咎，不利賓。」 The wrapping has a fish; no blame; not beneficial for guests. The fish is the portion already met. Keep it, close it well. Do not show it off, do not let guests divide it, do not publish it until everyone wants a bite.

Nine in the fourth: 「包無魚，起凶。」 The wrapping has no fish; to arise is unfortunate. What should have been wrapped was not caught: an empty wrap, and moving is unfortunate. In career: a chance came, you did not catch it, and you are still raising a matter, a fuss, a game with no content. Gou fears emptiness most. Meeting and not receiving, and not meeting yet forcing a creation: both unfortunate.

In wealth, Gou looks like a gust blowing something to the door. Short, fast, the coming unclear. You can pick it up. Do not treat the opening as the company’s main grain. The woman is strong, do not take her to wife, in wealth: this kind of too-strong chance is not suitable as your only formal business. As a side branch, as one meeting: allowed. As a principal wife: the risk is written in the judgment.

The initial six: 「繫于金柅，貞吉。有攸往，見凶。羸豕孚蹢躅。」 Tie it to a metal brake; persistence is fortunate. Going somewhere, you see misfortune. Like a lean pig, restless, pacing. Draw the initial six: that person, that chance, must have a brake. Without a metal ni 柅, yin runs all over the ground. At the start of a partnership, write authority, term, the money boundary dead: that is the metal brake.

Gou in love: it is meeting, not necessarily marriage

This hexagram, love must be spoken slowly. In class I first have students separate three words: meeting, marriage, affair. Gou is the first. The other two must be asked separately, and the lines read separately.

If you are single and draw Gou, you do easily bump into someone. The speed of bumping will be fast; the occasion will not look like a matchmaking. More like wind: work, travel, a friend’s dinner, an evening you had not prepared to take seriously. You can know them, come and go. Do not take her to wife: do not now use “this is the true match” to take. Take it, and the strength that follows becomes hard to gather.

If you are already together and draw Gou, raise alertness, and do not automatically pronounce infidelity. It may be an old person appearing suddenly, a new temptation, a work partner coming too close. The yielding meets the firm: often that yin comes to find yang, not yang hunting the street. If the home side is empty, has just decided a stretch, has just fought a fight, the meeting will be more accurate. The method is not taking up arms and flipping a phone. It is the metal brake: state the boundary, gather time, money, and being alone together. The wrapping has a fish, not beneficial for guests: the fish you already have, do not invite guests in.

A woman asking about love and drawing Gou need not put on the old line that she herself is “the woman strong.” She may have met a very strong object, or her own meeting this time came too fiercely. Read the question. What the hexagram cautions is “using this meeting to complete a taking” — not cautioning a gender for being alive.

Upper nine: 「姤其角，吝，無咎。」 Meeting at the horn; regret, no blame. At the top the meeting has already skewed: you hit the horn, not the body. Force a taking further: regret. Stop: no blame.

The lines of Gou mostly teach: once met, how to wrap, how to tie

Initial six: 繫于金柅，貞吉；有攸往見凶. Yin just arrived: the brake matters most. Going is unfortunate. Ask “shall I go further with this person”: the initial six often says tie it first, do not go.

Nine in the second: 包有魚，無咎，不利賓. Met: wrap it well. The fish is with you. Do not invite guests, do not let a third person in to divide this meeting. In love: just met, first the two of you see the situation clearly. Do not publish it into liveliness, and do not pull old guests in to judge.

Nine in the third: 臀無膚，其行次且，厲，無大咎. The buttocks have no skin; walking is difficult; dangerous, no great blame. This line looks like an uncomfortable meeting: the relationship has no flesh, nowhere to sit, walking uneven. You can know the danger. Need not make yourself the tragic lead. Do not force a taking, and there is no great blame.

Nine in the fourth: 包無魚，起凶. No substance, and you still start. Ask “does the other person have a heart”: nine in the fourth is straight: the wrap is empty. Empty and still arising: unfortunate. Stopping is smarter than chasing.

Nine in the fifth: 以杞包瓜，含章，有隕自天. Wrap a melon with willow; containing brilliance; something falls from Heaven. A meeting in position can wrap something large and sweet, but wrap with the yielding, not take with hardness. Containing brilliance: there is goods inside; need not display everything at the first meeting. Something falls from Heaven: when the time arrives it drops by itself. Need not climb to pick.

The upper nine as above. A meeting at the horn hits the thorn, not the person. Regret, then stop.

In class I most fear students using Gou to authorize a life decision

A meeting can be very sweet. Sweet is not a title. The woman is strong, do not take her to wife: not a curse. It protects you. Make an encounter directly into a marriage, an exclusive business promise, the sole reason to move to the other person’s city: whether you can gather the strength that follows, the hexagram has already asked you.

Metal brake, wrapping has a fish, not beneficial for guests: three sentences are enough. A brake, content, not leaking. Then Gou is a chance. Without these three, Gou is wind drilling in: open the door, and five yang will be taken along.

The lean pig pacing is the initial six’s picture: restless, hooves not still. When a meeting just comes, the body is faster than the mind. Then use persistence, not going. Going is seeing misfortune. Many people get into trouble not because they did not meet, but because the night they met had no metal brake, and they treated wind as fate.

Gou in career, besides a sudden order, is also common in being headhunted, a side job, a partnership that came too fast. You can talk; first put on the metal brake. Treat the other as the only support, the principal-wife brand, and “the woman is strong” turns from chance into a bind. Wrapping has a fish, not beneficial for guests, also advises: do not at a dinner call a case that has not formed already done. Guests come in, and the fish is no longer in your wrap.

It comes from Guai. The breath after deciding is not yet level, and a meeting most easily comes in. Read together: I Ching Guai Meaning | Hexagram 43 How to Read: Breakthrough, How to Decide and Remove. Do not read above and below as Xiao Xu. Xiao Xu is gathering, dense clouds that do not rain. Gou is yin entering from under the feet. Talk storing when you should guard a meeting, and yin is already in: I Ching Xiao Xu Meaning | Hexagram 9 How to Read: The Taming Power of the Small, How to Wait While Gathering. What a house wants is title and order, not a meeting: I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read: The Family, Marriage and Ordering the House. Put the posture right, so every wind is not taken as Heaven’s command: I Ching Qian (Modesty) Meaning | Hexagram 15 How to Read: All Six Lines Fortunate.

I Ching Gou FAQ

If I draw Gou, does the other person necessarily have an affair?

Not necessarily. The qi of meeting is there. Already in a marriage, check whether a yin is under the feet: ambiguity, an old person, too much being alone together. What you check is the boundary, not killing with one hexagram. No facts, and using Gou to convict, is itself too firm.

Can Gou be read as a true match?

As “someone bumped into you”: yes. As “you can take, marry, entrust everything”: no — at least not on this original hexagram alone. The judgment wrote do not take her to wife. A true match must be looked at separately: is there Heng, Jia Ren, a line that can persist. Meeting is a start. Marriage is another matter.

Wrapping has a fish, not beneficial for guests: is that telling me to hide this relationship?

Not teaching you to steal. This meeting cannot yet bear guests, display, a third person coming in to divide. Going public waits until it is not held up by wind alone. Treating a furtive stretch as a principal wife is also a kind of taking. The hexagram likes that no better.

A sudden partnership in career, I drew Gou: should I take it?

You can meet; first put on the metal brake: term, split, how to exit. Taking it as a side branch matches the hexagram better than as the only main work. No fish in the wrap, and they still want you to smash money to start: nine in the fourth’s kind — do not take it.

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