Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
The Joyous
Hexagram 58 of the Yi Jing · 兑 Duì
The figure
The Lake doubled: two joyous expanses reflecting each other, open water under the sky. The image of joy, of the exchange that gladdens.
What this figure illuminates
The Joyous lights up the gentle strength of shared joy, of the exchange that opens and encourages. But true joy is not complacency: it gladdens because it is sincere, not because it flatters.
For a decision, the figure questions the quality of what gladdens you: “does this joy nourish something true and shared, or is it only a pleasure seeking to please?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
Joy: it opens and succeeds. But let it rest on what is firm and correct.
The Image
Lake resting on lake, waters gladdening each other. Seeing this, the noble person joins with friends to talk and to learn together.
The Six Lines
- First line
A quiet gladness that rests within, needing nothing to show. Good fortune.
- Second line
Joy that springs from a sincere heart. Good fortune, and cause for regret disappears.
- Third line
Chasing after every source of pleasure, courting delight from outside. Misfortune — such joy has no ground.
- Fourth line
Torn between a shallow pleasure and a truer good, you find no peace. Turn from what would harm, and there is cause for joy.
- Fifth line
Placing your trust in what will wear you away. Take care — this danger wears a pleasing face.
- Sixth line
Drawing others on merely to be pleased by their applause — a joy that only performs. What seeks approval outside itself cannot last.
Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).
A question to keep
Does this joy nourish something true, or is it seeking to please?
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