Hexagram Cast Cast from anything
中文 Sign In
<- Library
<- 53 · Development 55 · Abundance ->
FILE · 54 / 64
054 · U+4DF5
䷵

The Marrying Maiden

GUĪ MÈI
Improper position · Junior role · Name-not-matched
Upper · Zhen ☳ Thunder / Lower · Dui ☱ Lake

Judgment

— I Ching · classical

征凶，无攸利。

Pressing forward under these conditions brings misfortune — there is nothing to be gained by it.

Image

— Great Image

泽上有雷，归妹，君子以永终知敝。

Thunder stirs above the lake: this is the image of the Marrying Maiden. Watching this, a person of real understanding weighs how any beginning will actually end, and reads the flaws hidden inside what looks temporary.

Six Lines

— Bottom to top

Initial Nine · 初九 ⚊ yang
归妹以娣，跛能履，征吉。
Entering the marriage as a secondary wife, like someone lame who still manages to walk -- moving forward under these limits still brings good fortune.
Entering as a secondary, with grace; like a lame man who still walks — accept the limited role and even small steps bring fortune.
Nine in the second · 九二 ⚊ yang
眇能视，利幽人之贞。
Like someone half-blind who still manages to see, staying quietly steady in a withdrawn position is what serves you here.
Limited vision; the steadfastness of a recluse fits — work within real constraints.
Six in the third · 六三 ⚋ yin
归妹以须，反归以娣。
Marrying beneath her own standing, she ends up entering only as a secondary wife after all.
Sought marriage beneath her dignity; arrives as a secondary wife — degraded status from her own miscalculation.
Nine in the fourth · 九四 ⚊ yang
归妹愆期，迟归有时。
The marriage is delayed past its expected date -- but a later match, arriving in its own time, is still coming.
Postpones marriage past the date; the right match comes later, in its own time.
Six in the fifth · 六五 ⚋ yin
帝乙归妹，其君之袂，不如其娣之袂良。月几望，吉。
When King Yi gave his own daughter in marriage, her own robes were plainer than her attendant's -- restraint even at the top. Like the moon just short of full, this brings good fortune.
King Yi's daughter wore plainer robes than her servants — the highest rank shows itself in modesty, not display. Moon nearly full; fortune.
Six at the top · 上六 ⚋ yin
女承筐无实，士刲羊无血，无攸利。
The woman lifts a basket that turns out empty; the man cuts the sheep and draws no blood -- empty ritual, with nothing real behind it. Nothing here works in your favor.
Empty basket, bloodless slaughter — pure ritual without substance; total formalism. Nothing advances.

Modern Readings

— Interdisciplinary

Career & Management

Reverse-merger listing, getting a deal via nepotism, leapfrogging the reporting line. Extreme disadvantage; can be sacrificed at any time; never overshadow the host, keep your head down.

Psychology & Cognition

Audit honestly whether you are playing a 'name-not-matched' role. Stop the shortcut fantasy; protect against the lifelong legal/reputational risk of cutting procedural corners.

Decision Guidance

Undertakings bring misfortune. Understand the transitory in the light of the eternal end (yong zhong zhi bi). Accept the subordinate role with dignity; do not pretend to the chief seat.

Integrated Reading

— Structure · timing · relations

The Marrying Maiden places The Arousing / Thunder above The Joyous / Lake. Read the lower trigram as the emerging ground and the upper trigram as the field, pressure, or constraint it must answer. The core theme is Improper position · Junior role · Name-not-matched. Relations: the opposite hexagram shows the shadow/complement (Development); the inverse shows the other-side view (Development); the nuclear hexagram shows the hidden internal mechanism (After Completion).

Line Path

Line path: Initial Nine → Nine in the second → Six in the third → Nine in the fourth → Six in the fifth → Six at the top. Read from bottom to top to see how the situation emerges, develops, crosses thresholds, and resolves.

Reflection Prompt

Am I acting from the proper position of The Marrying Maiden, or am I being pulled by forcing outcomes from an improper position? What is the smallest reversible next move that respects the timing?

Western Parallels

— Cross-cultural

Erving Goffman on 'role-distance' and dignified subordinate posture; Confucian 'rectification of names' (zhengming) as the diagnosis; the Stoic preferred indifferent vs. dispreferred indifferent; Robert Greene on the courtier's craft of restraint.

· Classical Chinese source text is normalized from the received Yijing / I Ching tradition; punctuation is editorial.
· English renderings and modern readings are original editorial writing, cross-checked against public-domain and classical commentary lineages.
· Hexagram Cast does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· Modern inputs are reproducible; traditional casts can be audited line by line from the stored coin/yarrow trace.
Add Hexagram Cast to your home screen for instant casting anywhere.