Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
The Marrying Maiden
Hexagram 54 of the Yi Jing · 归妹 Guī Mèi
The figure
Thunder above the Lake: movement over joy, the impulse entering a frame it doesn't control. The image of a union in a subordinate place.
What this figure illuminates
The Marrying Maiden lights up situations where you enter a whole without holding the reins. Rightness here depends on the quality of the relationship and the dignity you keep, not on rank.
For a decision, the figure invites lucidity about your position: “in this commitment where I don't decide everything, what still depends on my way of being, and my uprightness?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
The marrying maiden: to press forward brings misfortune, and nothing furthers. One enters here in a dependent place, not the leading one.
The Image
Thunder stirs above the lake, moving what lies below. Seeing this, the noble person, mindful of how things end, sees where they can go wrong at the start.
The Six Lines
- First line
Entering in a secondary place, like one lame in a leg who still walks. Accept the modest position and do it well — to go forward so is fortunate.
- Second line
Half-sighted, yet still able to see what matters. Hold to a quiet, faithful constancy, like one who keeps their own counsel.
- Third line
Waiting to be taken on any terms, you overreach and are put back in a lesser place. Grasping for the high seat, you settle for the low.
- Fourth line
Letting the moment pass, waiting past the season. The union is delayed — but the right time will still come.
- Fifth line
Like the king's own sister who married in plain sleeves, humbler than her attendant — worth that does not flaunt itself. Like the moon just short of full: good fortune.
- Sixth line
The bride's basket is empty, the offered sheep bleeds not — a rite hollow of substance. A bond in form only furthers nothing.
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
In this commitment where you don't decide everything, what depends on you?
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