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Hexagram 24 — Cui, Gathering Together
Chronological no. 24 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 45 · 萃
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the youngest daughter
the mother
The Lake rises above the Earth: the image of gathering together. Water accumulates and forms a shared expanse, gathering into one place what, scattered, would have had neither strength nor face. This is the figure of convergence that gives substance to the many. Thus the noble one repairs his weapons to guard against the unforeseen: gathering is not enough, one must also prepare to protect what has been gathered.
Contemplation is already a silent gathering. Even before bodies come together, minds that share the same outlook are, in a sense, already gathered. This line says true union always begins in the invisible, long before it becomes visible.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, emptiness closes over: what was still an opening begins to fill.
The receptive earth reaches its fullness: the silent welcome that carried the lower figure is about to assert itself.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the action of man, fullness meets its limit: the initiative that led the figure folds back upon itself.
At the sage's seat, fullness hollows out: the force that governed the figure from its center is about to invert.
At the summit, emptiness reaches its fullest extent and closes: the furthest opening turns toward its opposite.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
Eight 12×12 Jacquard patterns are generated from this hexagram, one for each admissible family of the system. Each has its own page: cell, tiling, recolourings and data.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
23 — Xu, Waiting · 25 — Sui, Following
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☱ Dui): 25 — Sui, Following · 26 — Kun, Oppression · 27 — Dui, The Joyous · 28 — Xian, Influence · 29 — Ge, Revolution · 30 — Da Guo, Preponderance of the Great · 31 — Guai, Breakthrough
Same lower trigram (☷ Kun): 0 — Kun, The Receptive · 8 — Yu, Enthusiasm · 16 — Bi, Holding Together · 32 — Bo, Splitting Apart · 40 — Jin, Progress · 48 — Guan, Contemplation · 56 — Pi, Standstill
