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Hexagram 54: Gui Mei (归妹) — The Marrying Maiden
Hexagram 54, Gui Mei (归妹) — The Marrying Maiden, is the fifty-fourth figure of the I Ching, its six lines putting the Thunder trigram above the Lake trigram; the ancients read it as a union entered from a subordinate position.
Meaning
Gui Mei is the hexagram of the unequal bond. Thunder moves above while the lake is stirred beneath it, and the old readers saw a marriage in which the partners do not stand as equals — the maiden who joins a household in a lesser place. The judgment is blunt: undertakings bring misfortune, nothing would further. The book's point is not that such bonds are worthless, but that they carry a cost that must be seen plainly.
Measured against the working world, the figure describes one who enters an arrangement without full standing — the junior partner, the person taken on terms set by others. The lines speak of the lame man who can still tread and the one-eyed man who can still see, and the commentators read these as the partial strength that survives in a subordinate place. Even a weak position can be made decent through steadiness.
For two people, Gui Mei was read with rare frankness. The fourth line — the marrying maiden draws out the allotted time, a late marriage comes in due course — was the commentators' picture of a person who refuses to rush into the wrong bond. The closing image, the woman holding an empty basket and the man stabbing a sheep from which no blood flows, was read as the emptiness of a union that is only formal, without substance.
Within a cycle, this figure marks a phase in which one must accept a lesser place or hold back from a bond altogether. The image of thunder over the lake is the book's picture of excitement stirring the waters without ever settling them — a season when the wise person looks carefully at the terms of any new attachment before agreeing to it.
The Judgment
“The Marrying Maiden. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.”
The Six Lines of The Marrying Maiden
Line 1The marrying maiden as a concubine. A lame man who is able to tread. Undertakings bring good fortune.
Line 2A one-eyed man who is able to see. The perseverance of a solitary man furthers.
Line 3The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine.
Line 4The marrying maiden draws out the allotted time. A late marriage comes in due course.
Line 5The sovereign I gives his daughter in marriage. The embroidered garments of the princess were not as gorgeous as those of the serving maid. The moon that is nearly full brings good fortune.
Line 6The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it. The man stabs the sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing that acts to further.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do the trigrams of Hexagram 54 sit?
Gui Mei (归妹) places the Thunder trigram (Zhen, 震) over the Lake trigram (Dui, 兑). Thunder stirring above a lake that cannot answer it was the ancients' image of a union of unequals — the source of the meaning of the marrying maiden.
Why is the judgment of Hexagram 54 so negative?
It reads: 'The Marrying Maiden. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.' The old commentaries explain that a bond entered from a subordinate position carries little room to act — the warning is not against such unions in themselves but against expecting from them what they cannot give.
What do the empty basket and the bloodless sheep mean?
The closing line describes a woman holding a basket with no fruit and a man stabbing a sheep from which no blood flows. The commentators saw these as pictures of a union that is only formal — the outward ceremony present, but the living substance missing.
Related
Source: Judgment and line texts follow the Wilhelm/Baynes rendering of the Yijing.
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