I Ching Xie Meaning: Hexagram 40 Explained

Jian 蹇 is difficulty. Xie 解 is difficulty beginning to loosen. Students drawing Xie easily breathe out, as if they can celebrate. Too early. Xie is not that the difficulty has vanished. It is that you can move — and you must move early.

Get the picture right first. Xie is Thunder over Water, Zhen above Kan. Water below — danger; thunder above — movement. Danger is still there; movement walks up out of danger: that is Xie. Many people write it as Zhun 屯, Water over Thunder. Zhun is Kan above Zhen: thunder under water, difficulty at the beginning, founding, movement that cannot get out. Reverse above and below and Xie is taught as “still in Zhun,” and when you should act you squat again.

Xie: difficulty cannot go on forever, so deliverance follows

The Xu Gua says: 「物不可以終難，故受之以解。解者，緩也。」 Things cannot end in difficulty, so Xie follows. Xie means loosening. After Jian, Xie must come. Not fate suddenly turning kind. Difficulty walked to the end, and the structure loosens. Huan 緩 is opening, not an instant zero.

The Tuan says: 「解，險以動，動而免乎險，解。」 Danger, then movement; move and you are free of danger: Xie. Stopping alone is not enough. Jian teaches seeing danger and being able to stop. Xie teaches that after stopping you must move. Read the two together, or “wisdom” will be heard as “never move.”

The judgment: 「利西南。無所往，其來復吉。有攸往，夙吉。」 Beneficial to the southwest. If there is nowhere to go, coming back is fortunate. If there is somewhere to go, early is fortunate. Southwest is still the level, many side. Hunting trouble for its own sake: better to come back and settle, fortunate. If there is a place you must go, go early, fortunate. Su 夙 is early. This hexagram hates delay most. Delay until danger knots again, and it is no longer Xie.

The Xiang says: 「雷雨作，解。君子以赦過宥罪。」 Thunder and rain arise, Xie. The superior person pardons error and is lenient with guilt. Thunder and rain come, qi scatters, the ground loosens. On the human side: let go of the faults that can be let go, untie the knots that can be untied. Not being a people-pleaser. Do not keep feeding a feud that can already be loosened.

Career and wealth: early is right; fullness is not

Ask about career and draw Xie: as a whole, you can move. A stuck project, a dragged contract, personnel never taken apart: acting now is more useful than more analysis. Interviews, returning to work, taking a paused plan out: all Xie scenes.

Xie is not Tai 泰. Tai is opening. Xie is leaving danger. When people leave danger they easily get excited, and when excited they open three new battlefields. The judgment is clear: if there is nothing you must go to, coming back is fortunate; if there is something you must go to, do it early, fortunate. Not an order to open everything. Beneficial to the southwest: the same sentence as Jian. Xie’s southwest is walking toward the many, toward what can loosen — not finding a more dangerous mountain to prove you have already been delivered.

In wealth, Xie looks like ice beginning to melt. Accounts can be pressed, goods can move, stuck payments have a better chance of coming in. You can collect, close, deal with bad debt. It does not suit filling the leverage the moment you have just untied, because danger has only just been left, and the ground is still wet. Nine in the second: 「田獲三狐，得黃矢」— hunting, taking three foxes, obtaining a yellow arrow. You can take results, and you must take the centered, correct arrow: the method must be right, not the joy of the hunt.

Untying petty people, untying trouble: this hexagram’s proper work. The thorn in the company, the root of trouble in a contract, the matter in your hands that has dragged into disaster: draw Xie, and this is the day to handle it. Drag it to the next Jian and the tuition is more expensive. Lawsuits, debts, old accounts, an inflammation in the body you have been putting off: all Xie’s topics. Untie early and it is su-fortunate. Drag it chronic, and after the thunder and rain it will freeze again.

Xie in love: untie the knot; do not fake the place

Ask about love and draw Xie: the relationship has a chance to loosen from a deadlock. A cold war can be talked, a misunderstanding taken apart, people who have been apart for a while may come back. Coming back does not mean marrying at once. Xie is loosening, letting the rope out a length — not rewriting a whole life in one sitting.

If you are already together, Xie’s danger is 「負且乘」. Six in the third: 「負且乘，致寇至，貞吝。」 Bearing a load and riding in a carriage: you invite robbers; persistence brings regret. The identity does not match. In love: the seat has not arrived, and you already put on the air of partner, boss’s wife, spouse-to-be. A faked seat invites thieves: gossip, a third party, the shame of being exposed.

If you are single and draw Xie, an old knot is loosening. Unfinished words from the last chapter, a heart of your own that was stuck: this stretch suits handling them. New people can be met; still say the conditions early. Su-fortunate in love: say early what should be said. Do not delay until the other person thinks you agreed to another kind of relationship.

Workplace relations under Xie: suit taking misunderstandings apart, and suit untying people who should not stay, games that should not stay. Untying petty people is not public humiliation. It is cutting the link that lets danger keep existing. Nine in the fourth: 「解而拇，朋至斯孚」— untie the toe, and friends come with trust. What you untie is a small tie like a toe. If the small is not untied, the large friend cannot come near.

The lines of Xie: not all fortunate — what you untie matters

The initial six: 「無咎」— no blame. Deliverance has just begun; no great error. The place is low. Steady first. Do not rush to be a hero.

Nine in the second: 田獲三狐，得黃矢，貞吉. Hunting, three foxes, a yellow arrow. Persistence fortunate. Foxes in old notes often stand for hidden petty people, hidden trouble. Yellow is the central color; the arrow is straight. Draw nine in the second: the matter can yield a harvest, by being centered and correct, striking the vital point — not by a dark trick. In career: catch the real problem; the method must be right.

Six in the third: 負且乘，致寇至，貞吝. As above. Ask about a post, a title, whether to announce: this line is especially poisonous. Sit in a carriage you should not sit in, and thieves come by themselves. Thieves need not be pickpockets. They are people who come to take you apart.

Nine in the fourth: 解而拇，朋至斯孚. Untie the small involvement, and friends trust you and come. The toe is small, and it can move the whole body. Draw nine in the fourth: first handle that unbecoming small relationship, small habit, small handle. Large knots often loosen from here.

Six in the fifth: 君子維有解，吉。有孚于小人. The superior person has deliverance; fortunate. There is sincerity toward petty people. The superior person goes to untie; fortunate. Toward petty people there must also be credit — or: the knot on the petty-people side must also be untied with sincerity, not only pressed with force. A leader drawing six in the fifth cannot pretend not to see a personnel problem. The method is holding, untying — not purging until the other side is an enemy forever.

Upper six: 「公用射隼于高墉之上，獲之，無不利。」 The duke shoots a hawk on a high wall, takes it; nothing is unfavorable. At the top, the harm that should be removed must be removed, and it must be accurate. Xie here is not lukewarm water. It is one strike. If the question is removing trouble, a petty person, a threat in a high place, this line is most beneficial. Not an order to shoot everyone you meet. The hawk on the high wall is harm you can see and aim at — not every bird by the road.

Ask about health and draw Xie: often the illness begins to loosen, the medicine begins to match, that pent-up qi can scatter. Still su-fortunate: see early what should be seen, stop early what should stop. Treat Xie as “already well, I can stay up late”: the body version of bearing and riding.

In class, Xie must be taught bound to Jian

Xie without Jian, and students treat Xie as good luck arriving. Xie with Jian, and they know this movement is to leave danger, not to celebrate.

I have students say three sentences to themselves:

1. Which rope am I untying? If they cannot say it, Xie becomes random movement.
2. Is there something that should be done early? If yes, su-fortunate: do it today. If not, come back, settle, do not hunt trouble.
3. Am I bearing and riding? Title, carriage, rank: if one item is faked, get down first. Getting down is Xie, not shame.

Thunder over water: movement must walk out of danger, and walking out is Xie. Walk out and sit in a carriage you should not sit in, and danger comes back through another door.

Pardoning error and being lenient with guilt is Xie’s virtue, not Xie’s muddle. Letting go of what can be let go is so qi can scatter. The hawk that should be shot still must be shot. Students often make Xie into “never mind, never mind.” Never mind is coming back; sometimes that is right. The one thing that should be su-fortunate, still never-minded, and danger knots again. So Xie asks early, and asks accurately: which rope, not whether you know how to be a person.

One more sentence: Xie is not Tai. Tai is open, you can push. Xie is danger just left: first open the rope. After opening, then ask whether to do something large. Reverse the sequence and bearing and riding arrives.

How Jian is walked: I Ching Jian Meaning | Hexagram 39 How to Read: Obstruction, How to Move Through Difficulty. Xie has thunder; sudden movement is kin to Zhen: I Ching Zhen Meaning | Hexagram 51 How to Read: Thunder, How to Meet Sudden Shock. Do not read above and below as Zhun; Zhun is beginning difficulty that cannot get out: I Ching Zhun Meaning | Hexagram 3 How to Read: Difficulty at the Beginning. After untying, if qi truly opens, it looks more like I Ching Tai Meaning | Hexagram 11 How to Read: Advance or Guard in Peace.

I Ching Xie FAQ

If I draw Xie, are the bad things already over?

What has ended is the stretch of “cannot move.” Danger has just been left. Aftercare is still there. Treat Xie as already victory, and you easily bear and ride, and easily drag su-fortunate into late-fortunate. Late is not su.

Does Xie suit signing, suit getting back together?

It suits opening the knot, then signing, then talking. Old terms, old qi not yet untied, and you rush the next paper: changing one rope for another. Getting back together is possible. First untie why it was Jian, then talk about later.

Bearing and riding — does it mean a third party, an affair?

It can, and it is not limited to love. A post sat too high, a public claim beyond the fact, using a temporary carriage to play permanent owner: all bearing and riding. An affair is only one kind of “sitting in a seat you should not sit in.”

Nowhere to go, coming back is fortunate: is that giving up the aim?

Not giving up. For now there is no reason that must campaign far. Come back and settle what has been untied: fortunate. If there truly is somewhere to go, the hexagram itself will say su-fortunate. The two sentences side by side ask you to distinguish: this time, gather in, or go early.

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