Hexagram 44 Thiên Phong Cấu (姤): The Unplanned Encounter and Why a Newly Born Yin Line Is Taken Seriously

Hexagram Thiên Phong Cấu (number 44, 姤): the unplanned encounter and why a newly born yin line is held in such regard

Hexagram Thiên Phong Cấu (天風姤) is hexagram number 44 of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching in the Zhou Yi ordering, made up of the outer trigram Qian above and the inner trigram Xun below, that is, heaven above and wind below. As for its line structure, this is a hexagram with five yang lines and one yin line, and that yin line sits in the lowest position, only just born. This is the point that makes Cấu much discussed when it comes to recognising early something that has just appeared.

What are the upper and lower trigrams of Thiên Phong Cấu?

The outer trigram of Cấu is Qian (乾), the image of heaven, firm and strong in nature. The inner trigram is Xun (巽), the image of wind, the image of entering into, yielding in nature yet penetrating deeply. Wind beneath heaven is the image of wind threading through every place, nowhere it does not reach. Placed side by side, Qian above and Xun below give a clearly asymmetrical structure: above are five yang lines in a row, at the very bottom a single lone yin line.

As for the five phases, many reference works classify this hexagram as belonging to Metal, since Qian is Metal. In the lookup tables of present day I Ching sites, the Cấu hexagram is usually recorded with the following information: ordinal number 44 of 64, the Sino-Vietnamese name Thiên Phong Cấu, the figure ☰ above ☴, inner trigram Xun, outer trigram Qian, five yang lines out of six.

It is worth noting that Cấu is the opposing (reversed) hexagram of Trạch Thiên Quải (hexagram 43). Quải has five yang lines below and one yin line at the very top, that is, the yin line has risen to the summit and is about to be pushed out. Cấu is the reverse: the yin line has only just been born at the very bottom. Looking at the two hexagrams side by side reveals a cycle of movement: the yin that was pushed out in Quải then returns to be born in Cấu. This is why many books pair these two hexagrams as a symmetrical couple.

Why does hexagram Cấu (number 44) follow hexagram Quải (number 43)?

According to the Tự Quái truyện, the commentary section of later ages discussing the order of the 64 hexagrams, once things have been decided there must be a place of meeting, and so Cấu follows Quải, and Cấu means meeting. Quải is decision, is resolutely casting off what no longer fits. Cấu is meeting, is a new encounter arising after what has been cast off. This is a very natural rhythm of events: after one matter is settled conclusively, there will always be a new matter, a new person, a new situation appearing.

The layers of text need to be clearly distinguished. The classic text of the Cấu hexagram consists of the hexagram statement (also called the Thoán từ) and the six line statements. The Thoán truyện and the Tượng truyện belong to the Ten Wings, they are commentaries, not the original classic text. When reading Cấu, one should separate what is classic text from what is commentary, so as not to merge the two textual layers together.

What does the hexagram statement of Thiên Phong Cấu say?

The hexagram statement as recorded in the Chinese text:

姤：女壯，勿用取女。

Cấu: Nữ tráng, vật dụng thú nữ.

Close literal meaning: Cấu is the woman being strong, do not use to marry that woman. This is a sentence set within the marriage norms of Zhou era society, when marriage was tied very tightly to clan order and ritual; this sentence should not be quoted as advice about women or marriage today.

Wang Bi's commentary (in the Zhou Yi zhengyi) explains "vật dụng thú nữ" as "cannot last long together", and explains "heaven and earth meet, the myriad things all become manifest" as "only what is correct succeeds". Zhu Xi (Zhou Yi benyi) comments: "姤 is meeting. When decision is complete it becomes pure Qian, which is the hexagram of the fourth month; when it reaches 姤 then one yin first appears, becoming the hexagram of the fifth month. Because it is originally not what one was hoping for but suddenly meets with, like people who meet without an appointment, therefore it is called meeting. Meeting that is already not correct, and moreover one yin meeting five yang, then the woman's virtue is incorrect and very strong. Marrying her to be one's partner will certainly harm the yang, and so the image is divined in this way."

What do the Thoán truyện and Đại Tượng truyện of Cấu say?

The Thoán truyện (belonging to the Ten Wings, traditionally attributed to Confucius; modern scholarship places it around the 5th to 2nd century BCE) records:

姤，遇也，柔遇剛也。勿用取女，不可與長也。天地相遇，品物咸章也。剛遇中正，天下大行也。姤之時義大矣哉！

Cấu, ngộ dã, nhu ngộ cương dã. Vật dụng thú nữ, bất khả dữ trường dã. Thiên địa tương ngộ, phẩm vật hàm chương dã. Cương ngộ trung chính, thiên hạ đại hành dã. Cấu chi thời nghĩa đại hĩ tai!

Close literal meaning: Cấu is meeting, the yielding meets the firm. "Do not use to marry the woman" is that one cannot last long together. Heaven and earth meet, the myriad things all become manifest. The firm meets central correctness, the whole world greatly proceeds. The meaning of the time of Cấu is great indeed!

Wang Bi's commentary on the passage "the firm meets central correctness, the whole world greatly proceeds": "only then do teaching and transformation greatly proceed". Commentary on the passage "the meaning of the time of Cấu is great indeed": "in general, to speak of meaning is not to stop only at what is seen before one's eyes, within it there is an intention that is meant to be said".

The Đại Tượng (Tượng truyện) records:

天下有風，姤；后以施命誥四方。

Thiên hạ hữu phong, Cấu; hậu dĩ thi mệnh cáo tứ phương.

Close literal meaning: beneath heaven there is wind is the image of the Cấu hexagram. The sovereign follows this and issues commands, proclaiming them to the four directions. The image of wind threading through every place shows that something new, once it appears, will spread very quickly.

What do the six line statements of Cấu mean?

The six lines of Cấu describe six situations of dealing with a newly appeared sprout, from the moment it can still be blocked at once to the moment it has spread to its extreme.

Sơ lục (line 1, yin)

The line statement records:

初六：系于金柅，貞吉，有攸往，見凶，羸豕，孚，蹢躅。

Sơ lục: Hệ vu kim nê, trinh cát, hữu du vãng, kiến hung, luy thỉ, phu, trịch trục.

Close literal meaning: tied to a metal cart brake, holding firm is good; if there is somewhere one wishes to go, one meets misfortune; the lean pig, truly trusting, paces and leaps about.

The Tiểu Tượng records: 系于金柅，柔道牽也。 (Tied to a metal cart brake, the way of the yielding is pulled and held back.)

Wang Bi's commentary: "Metal is a hard substance. Nê is what governs the controlling of movement, it refers to the Cửu tứ line. Sơ lục is at the beginning point of meeting, with one yin riding over five yang, its constitution is originally impetuous, being met and thus unobstructed, scattered without a master, letting itself go. A yielding substance cannot be left unpulled and held. The way of the minister and the way of the wife and concubine cannot be left incorrect, and so one must tie it to its correct response to obtain "holding firm is good". If one does not tie it to the one but has somewhere to go, then one only sees misfortune. Luy thỉ is a sow. Among a herd of pigs, the male is strong and the female is weak, and so it is called "luy thỉ". Phu consists in impetuousness. One whose yin substance is impetuous and lets itself go, then the lean pig goes even further, meaning that taking an incorrect yin, losing the place of tying and holding, its ugly evil of lust is like a lean pig impetuously pacing and leaping about."

Zhu Xi's commentary: "Nê is a thing for stopping a cart, made with metal, its hardness can be known. One yin newly born, if kept still and correct then good, if it advances then bad, and so these two meanings are used to warn the petty person, causing them not to harm the noble person, then there is good and no bad. But its momentum cannot be stopped, and so the image of a lean pig leaping about is used to make the noble person know and take deep precaution."

Cửu nhị (line 2, yang)

The line statement records:

九二：包有魚，无咎，不利賓。

Cửu nhị: Bao hữu ngư, vô cữu, bất lợi tân.

Close literal meaning: in the kitchen there is fish, no fault, not beneficial for the guest.

The Tiểu Tượng records: 包有魚，義不及賓也。 (In the kitchen there is fish, the meaning does not reach the guest.)

Wang Bi's commentary: "The first line is yin and at the very bottom, and so it is called "fish". A yin that is incorrect, at the beginning point of meeting, cannot resist what is near. The first line gladly comes to respond to its own kitchen, it is not there to seize by force, and so "no fault". Seizing another's thing to do oneself a favour, the meaning is that it should not be done, and so "not beneficial for the guest"."

Zhu Xi's commentary: "Fish is a yin thing, the second line meets the first line, there is the image of "in the kitchen there is fish". But controlling it in oneself, and so it can still be no fault; if one does not control it and lets it meet the crowd then its harm is broad, and so the image is divined in this way."

Cửu tam (line 3, yang)

The line statement records:

九三：臀无膚，其行次且，厲，无大咎。

Cửu tam: Đồn vô phu, kỳ hành thứ thả, lệ, vô đại cữu.

Close literal meaning: the buttocks have no skin, walking is difficult and laboured, danger, no great fault.

The Tiểu Tượng records: 其行次且，行未牽也。 (Walking is difficult and laboured, walking is not yet pulled and held back.)

Wang Bi's commentary: "At the extreme of the lower body, and the second line has seized the first line, it is not that it rides over it, it cannot rest where it is, it follows its own response, it cannot be pulled and held back, to hold fast to its place, and so it says "the buttocks have no skin, walking is difficult and laboured". But it treads on its own position, it is not in excess, it does not meet its own time, and so it is made dangerous and precarious. The calamity is not one it brought on itself, and so "no great fault"."

Zhu Xi's commentary: "Cửu tam is excessively firm and not central, below it does not meet the first line, above it does not respond to the top line, staying it is not at rest, going it does not advance, and so the image is divined in this way. But since it does not meet, then it does not suffer the harm of the yin evil, and so although dangerous and precarious it has no great fault."

Cửu tứ (line 4, yang)

The line statement records:

九四：包无魚，起凶。

Cửu tứ: Bao vô ngư, khởi hung.

Close literal meaning: in the kitchen there is no fish, raising a matter then misfortune.

The Tiểu Tượng records: 无魚之凶，遠民也。 (The misfortune of having no fish is being far from the people.)

Wang Bi's commentary: "The second line has its fish, and so it loses it. To move without having the people, to act having lost one's response, and so "misfortune"."

Zhu Xi's commentary: "The first line's correct response has already met the second line and does not come to oneself, and so the image is divined in this way."

Cửu ngũ (line 5, yang)

The line statement records:

九五：以杞包瓜，含章，有隕自天。

Cửu ngũ: Dĩ kỷ bao qua, hàm chương, hữu vẫn tự thiên.

Close literal meaning: using a willow to wrap a melon, concealing one's brilliance within, there is something falling from heaven.

The Tiểu Tượng records: 九五含章，中正也。有隕自天，志不舍命也。 (Cửu ngũ conceals its brilliance, this is central correctness. There is something falling from heaven, the will does not abandon the mandate.)

Wang Bi's commentary: "The willow is a thing that grows in good soil. Wrapping a melon is a thing that is tied up and not eaten. Cửu ngũ treads on the honoured seat, and does not meet its own response, it obtains the ground yet does not eat, it conceals its brilliance and does not yet emit it, it does not meet its response, its mandate does not yet circulate. But it rests in its own place, its substance is firm and it holds the centre, its will does not abandon the mandate, it cannot be toppled or made to fall, and so it says "there is something falling from heaven"."

Zhu Xi's commentary: "The melon is a yin thing below, sweet and beautiful yet easily bruised. The willow is a tall, large, firm and solid tree. The fifth line takes yang firmness and central correctness as the master of the hexagram above and guards against the newly born yin that will certainly bruise what is below, the image is like this. But yin and yang alternately conquer, this is the norm of the cycles of time; if one can conceal one's brilliance, be quiet and still in order to control it, then one can turn around the workings of creation. "There is something falling from heaven" is the image of what originally was not there yet suddenly is."

Thượng cửu (line 6, yang)

The line statement records:

上九：姤其角，吝，无咎。

Thượng cửu: Cấu kỳ giác, lận, vô cữu.

Close literal meaning: meeting at the place of the horns, regrettable, no harm.

The Tiểu Tượng records: 姤其角，上窮吝也。 (Meeting at the place of the horns, at the top and exhausted, regrettable.)

Wang Bi's commentary: "Advancing to the extreme, there is nothing left to meet, one meets the horns and that is all, and so it says "meeting at the place of the horns". Advancing yet not meeting, one only feels regret, one does not contend with any thing, its way does no harm, and so there is no misfortune or fault."

Zhu Xi's commentary: "The horns are the hard thing at the top. Thượng cửu takes firmness and sits at the top yet has no position, it does not obtain its own meeting, and so the image divined is like that of the third line."

What is the Cấu hexagram's place among the twelve waxing and waning hexagrams?

There are Han era books that place Cấu in the group of twelve waxing and waning hexagrams (also called ascending and descending, waning and waxing), corresponding to the fifth lunar month, when the yin qi begins to be born again after the point of yang's extreme. It should be stated clearly that this is one arrangement of one school, tying the hexagram to the calendar and to the cycle of waxing and waning of yin and yang. This arrangement does not belong to the classic text, but to the tradition of commentary and later application. The reader should know this so as not to confuse the original text with the system of interpretation.

Encountering the Cấu hexagram when asking about work or love, how should it be understood?

In modern divination systems in Vietnam, the Cấu hexagram usually appears in two forms. The first form is casting a pure I Ching hexagram, reading only the hexagram statement, the line statements and the images. The second form is the six lines method (also called Mai Hoa, or divining by lines and the six relations), in which the Cấu hexagram is analysed by the Thế line, the Ứng line, the Tài line, the Quan line, and factors such as hidden storage, void, the monthly command, the day spirit.

In the six lines form, some reference works hold that when asking about love and meeting the Cấu hexagram, the Tài line may be hidden in storage, that is, not appearing on the hexagram, suggesting a spouse or lover who is far away, hard to grasp. However this is a way of reasoning according to one specific school, not the content of the classic text. The same hexagram, a person reasoning by the pure I Ching and a person reasoning by the six lines can give two different results. This is where the schools do not agree, and the reader should know which system they are reading by.

A suggestion from Nhật Nguyệt: if you meet the Cấu hexagram when asking about work, you can ask yourself whether you have an opportunity or a new factor that has just appeared, and what stage it is at. If asking about love, you can look at whether you are being swept along by something new and not yet clear. This is a suggestion for reflection, not a certain piece of advice about work or love.

What do modern commentary books say about the hexagram image?

Some books and articles today analyse Cấu by the image of Qian as fruit and Xun as wood, giving the image of fruit growing on a tree. This way of reading emphasises the imbalance between yin and yang in the hexagram: yin too weak, yang too strong. Some articles even use the image of "one woman carrying five men" to speak of the unusual state of the relationship in the hexagram. This is a way of interpreting the imagery, it does not belong to the original classic text. When reading, one should clearly distinguish the illustrative imagery from the original text of the Zhou Yi.

Why are the Khổng Minh Thần Toán verses not Zhou Yi line statements?

The book Khổng Minh Thần Toán records hexagrams and oracle verses such as hexagram 302, 303 with inner trigram Xun, outer trigram Cấn. These are the oracle verses of a separate system, not the line statements of the Zhou Yi, even though they use the names of trigrams and lines. These two systems need to be kept apart so as not to mix them up when looking things up.

Table comparing the structure of the Cấu hexagram with the Quải hexagram

Why is a newly born yin line held in such regard?

The answer lies in the position and the momentum of the yin line. In a hexagram with five yang lines, the single yin line at the very bottom is the only point that can grow. It is not strong in number, but it has the potential to change the entire structure of the hexagram later. This is why commentators pay particular attention to the Sơ lục line of Cấu, and also why this line is regarded as the most important line of the hexagram.

This way of seeing is not a purely moral piece of advice. It rests on structure: a yin line in a low position, in a hexagram with much yang, will be the sprout of change. The Tiểu Tượng truyện explains the line statements based on the hexagram image and the position of the line, and takes precisely the Sơ lục line of Cấu as its example. That explanation points clearly to the cause in the line structure, it does not merely give a moral judgement.

What should you keep in mind when reading the Cấu hexagram?

First, do not assert absolute good or bad fortune for any specific situation. The Cấu hexagram speaks of a structure, a configuration, it does not speak of a fixed outcome.

Second, the hexagram statement "nữ tráng, vật dụng thú nữ" needs to be read in the context of Zhou era marriage and in the metaphorical reading of the commentators. This sentence should not be quoted as advice about women or marriage today.

Third, one needs to distinguish the classic text from the later commentaries such as the Thoán truyện, Tượng truyện, Hệ từ, Tự Quái truyện. These commentaries have their own value, but they are not on the same textual layer as the classic text.

Fourth, the ways of arranging hexagrams by calendar, by the six lines, by Mai Hoa are different applied systems, not the original content of the Zhou Yi. The reader should know which system they are reading by.

Fifth, the oracle verses of systems such as Khổng Minh Thần Toán are not Zhou Yi line statements, even though they use the names of trigrams and lines.

The structure of hexagram Thiên Phong Cấu in a table

Where do the six lines of hexagram Thiên Phong Cấu stand, and when a line moves, which hexagram does it turn into?

The table reads from the first line (bottom) up to the top line. The line name is composed of the position and the nature: yang is called Cửu, yin is called Lục. The last column is the changed hexagram when ONLY that line moves, calculated by the same method that the Nhật Nguyệt hexagram casting tool uses.