I Ching Kui Meaning: Hexagram 38 Explained

Draw Kui 睽 and students often ask first: are we splitting?

Get the hexagram right first. Kui is Fire over Lake, Li above Dui. Fire above, lake below. Fire burns upward; water seeps down: the two run opposite ways. Li is the middle daughter; Dui is the youngest daughter. Two women living together, hearts not going one way. That is Kui. Guai 乖 is division, not seeing eye to eye, each living each.

Do not read it as Ge 革, Lake over Fire. Ge is Dui above Li: water on fire, change, a change of fate. Kui is fire above, lake below: still each going each way. One is change; one is not matching. Say the full name wrong and advice to join or split reverses.

Kui is also often mixed with Jia Ren 家人, because both have Li. Jia Ren is Wind over Fire, Xun above Li: wind coming out of fire, the house’s teaching from inside outward. Kui is Fire over Lake: two women under one roof, aims not the same. Jia Ren is harmony; Kui is division. Ask about family or marriage and these two often arrive as a pair. Read Kui as Jia Ren and you advise a heart already split to “endure a little more and the house will order.” Forcing order when it will not order is Kui’s most expensive practice.

Kui: when the way of the house is exhausted, Kui arrives

The Xu Gua says: 「家道窮必乖，故受之以睽。睽者，乖也。」 When the way of the house is exhausted, there must be opposition, so Kui follows. Kui means opposition. Before it is Jia Ren. Walk the house’s road until it is exhausted, until it cannot walk, and the heart turns contrary. So Kui does not drop from nowhere. It is often Jia Ren unfinished: fake division of labor, chaotic teaching, inner and outer both incorrect, dragged until two women live together and their aims do not walk together.

Draw Kui and I always ask: in the house, which item was exhausted first? Money, children, who you live with, who decides. Name the exhausted item, and the opposition has a name. Kui without a name is only people disliking each other.

The Tuan says: 「火動而上，澤動而下。二女同居，其志不同行。」 Fire moves upward; the lake moves downward. Two women live together; their aims do not walk together. The judgment is three characters: 「小事吉」— small matters are fortunate. Those three characters are the hexagram’s use. Small matters can match, can be done, can get the day lived. Forcing large matters to match — forcing a lifetime, forcing a merger of businesses, forcing the other person to change aims — mostly does not match the hexagram. In class I put it earthily: in Kui, first wash the bowls together. Do not rewrite the constitution together.

Career and wealth: small is suitable; do not force two things into one

Ask about career and draw Kui: people do not see alike, departments each do their own, partners’ aims do not walk together. You can work. Do the small. Split contracts fine, write duties clear, get one matter aligned, then talk about the next. Do not merge companies now, do not force two systems into one, do not use a large meeting to “unify thought.” Unifying thought is something Jia Ren can still do. A Kui meeting, once held, only makes the opposition worse.

In wealth, Kui looks like books that do not match, payments each telling a different story, partners’ “how much we should split” not in the same world. Large shared ventures, mutual guarantees: a red light. Small matters fortunate: a small order, one clear sum, the piece you can control. Bundle all the money into a game that cannot see alike, and the horse is lost first.

The initial nine already teaches the attitude toward wealth and people. 「悔亡。喪馬勿逐，自復。見惡人，無咎。」 Regret vanishes. Lost horse: do not chase; it returns by itself. See a disagreeable person: no blame. Draw the first line and career’s worst habit is: lose one client and chase the whole field, or see one unpleasant person and break in public. In Kui’s field, disagreeable people will appear. See them: no blame. Entangle: blame. The kind of horse that returns by itself is usually the kind that runs farther if you chase.

Nine in the second: 遇主于巷，無咎. Meeting the principal in an alley. No blame. You cannot meet at the main gate; you meet in a lane. Draw this line: the proper occasion cannot agree; a side occasion, privately, around a corner, can reach the person who can decide. Need not be ashamed of walking a lane. In Kui, the grand meeting is often empty.

Six in the third: 見輿曳，其牛掣，其人天且劓。無初有終. Seeing the wagon dragged, the ox pulling back, the person branded and with the nose cut. No beginning, there is an end. Ugly at the start. Draw this line and a partnership or a relationship will look very bad — and it is not without an ending. First admit it is this ugly now. Get the wagon out of the mud. The end is still ahead.

Nine in the fourth: 睽孤。遇元夫，交孚，厲無咎. Kui, alone. Meeting a principal person, exchanging sincerity. Dangerous, no blame. Isolated in opposition, then meeting someone who can take charge and can be trusted, hearts exchanged. Dangerous, still no blame. Being alone is not the illness. The illness is being alone and still seeking a crowd whose aims differ even more. One principal person is enough.

Six in the fifth: 悔亡。厥宗噬膚，往何咎. Regret vanishes. One’s own clan biting the skin. Going, what blame? Draw this line and the problem is often in the nearest kin, in one’s own clan. Near, so it hurts. Near, so you can still go. Hiding is not the method.

Love is one of Kui’s proper subjects — write it clearly

Ask about love and draw Kui: this is the reverse of Jia Ren. Two people still under one eaves; the hearts already do not walk the same road. Not every Kui pair must leave. The judgment is small matters fortunate, not large matters so unfortunate that you must scatter. In this stretch do not force large matters to match: do not use marriage to repair not matching, do not use a child to repair not matching, do not use a public display to repair not matching. Those are large matters. Small matters are: finish one sentence, split one account clearly, set the child’s pickup, eat today’s meal. Do the small, and the qi sometimes returns by itself, like a lost horse you do not chase.

If you are single and draw Kui, you may meet people in this stretch, and aims easily do not walk together. Meet once and the views already quarrel, or both people are fine and simply cannot walk together. Do not chase with intensity. See a disagreeable person, no blame: meeting someone you cannot match is not a disaster. Need not force yourself forward for fear of “being too picky.” Forcing is hard matching. Kui eats that most.

Already together, married, asking about living apart or leaving: Kui depends on the line, and on whether there is a principal person, whether there is an end. Six in the third: no beginning, there is an end — ugly now, later it may still gather. The upper nine is clearer: suspicion loads a wagon of ghosts, and in the end it may be a misunderstanding. Announce death the moment you draw Kui, and you have treated opposition as a grave. Opposition is a state. The exhausted way of the house can be repaired. What you repair is Jia Ren’s proper work: inner and outer correct, teaching present, division of labor real. While repairing, still only do small matters. Leave large matters for the day the qi begins to be the same.

A third party, each living each, already having another aim outside: Kui also often appears. Two women living together, aims not walking together: not necessarily two women. Two hearts. The heart has already split, and you still press with Jia Ren’s words: after the press, more Kui. First let the matter show: whose aim is where. Once it shows, you can decide whether small matters maintain it, or the way of the house is exhausted enough to change form.

The upper nine must be taught alone. 「睽孤。見豕負塗，載鬼一車。先張之弧，後說之弧。匪寇婚媾。往遇雨則吉。」 Alone in Kui. Seeing a pig coated in mud, a wagon of ghosts. First drawing the bow, then loosening it. Not a robber: a marriage. Go forward, meet rain, then fortunate. This is the full process of seeing ghosts. Once a relationship is in Kui, people see the other as a pig, a ghost, a robber. The bow is drawn full, and you find it is not a robber: it is that match, that person. Rain is yin and yang exchanging again. Draw the upper nine and I almost always advise: put the bow down first. Do not shoot when it most looks like a ghost. Many Kui endings are misunderstandings. Of course, some truly are robbers. So go, meet rain — do not close the eyes and call it nothing. Put the bow down, and still see clearly. See that it is a person, then talk marriage. See that it is a robber, then leave. Reverse the order and you shoot first, then regret.

In class, when you do not match, fear two things most

First, forcing large matters to match. Marriage, merger, public taking of sides, forcing the other to choose. Kui’s judgment does not support it. Small matters fortunate. Finishing the small is already this hexagram’s fortune.

Second, chasing the lost horse, entangling the disagreeable person, the upper nine’s wagon of ghosts that you shoot first. The horse runs farther, the disagreeable person becomes a true enemy, the ghost becomes your own heart. Do not chase; see and there is no blame; first draw then loosen: all three are the position of the hands. Do not reach too far.

Kui comes from Jia Ren, and must be read back toward Jia Ren. Why was the way of the house exhausted? Which inner or outer seat is incorrect? Patch that item as a small matter, slowly. More useful than a long letter on “our aims.” Aims that do not walk together cannot be written back by an essay. Bowls, accounts, the child’s schedule: those can be patched back.

Related: I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read: The Family, Marriage and Ordering the House, I Ching Heng Meaning | Hexagram 32 How to Read: Duration, How to Keep What Lasts, I Ching Xian Meaning | Hexagram 31 How to Read: Influence, How to Read Feeling.

I Ching Kui FAQ

If I draw Kui, must we break up or dissolve the partnership?

Not necessarily. Aims temporarily do not walk together. Small matters are still fortunate. Six in the third has an end; the upper nine is not a robber but a marriage: both leave a seam for matching. Treat it as a death sentence at once and you will chase away even the horse that could return. If you truly split, that should be after seeing clearly — not moving house the moment the word Kui appears.

Small matters fortunate: what counts as small, what as large?

Small: closing one account, setting one pickup, finishing one sentence, getting through the day. Large: changing the name, changing where you live, changing partners, using a child or a public occasion to repair the bond. Large matters wait until the qi is more the same, or until the resulting hexagram walks to Jia Ren or Xian. Force large matters in the midst of Kui, and aims split further.

Upper nine, a wagon of ghosts: is the other person deceiving me?

It may also be you, in Kui, seeing the other as a ghost. First drawing the bow, then loosening it: the line itself puts the bow down. Check evidence first, then draw. If the evidence is a robber, leave. If the evidence is a misunderstanding, meet rain and it is fortunate. A guess is not evidence.

Original Jia Ren, resulting Kui — or original Kui, resulting Jia Ren: how do I read it?

Jia Ren into Kui: the house’s harmony is walking toward division. Check which item of labor or which sentence split the heart. Do small patches. Do not do large matters as if nothing were wrong. Kui into Jia Ren: from not matching toward gathering in. Worth talking. Worth giving a common, concrete aim. The two directions differ. The advice cannot be shared.

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