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Hexagram 43 — Kui, Opposition
Chronological no. 43 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 38 · 睽
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the middle daughter
the youngest daughter
Above, Fire; below, the Lake: the image of opposition. Fire rises, water falls — two natures that live side by side without ever merging, each faithful to its own direction. This is the figure of assumed difference without total rupture. Thus the noble one, within what is shared, discerns what differs: recognizing an opposition does not require destroying it — one can coexist with what contradicts us without pretending to erase it.
The sorting occurs between words that elevate and those that divide. Not every disagreement is a rupture: some oppositions, rightly understood, refine thought rather than breaking it. This line teaches how to distinguish fruitful disagreement from sterile conflict.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, fullness stirs: the yang onset that carried the whole figure now yields its place.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
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, emptiness fills: the suppleness that governed with discretion gathers a new force.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
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
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 20 — Jian, Obstruction (63 − 43 = 20): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 20, one for each admissible family.
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
42 — Wei Ji, Before Completion · 44 — Lu, The Wanderer
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☲ Li): 40 — Jin, Progress · 41 — Shi He, Biting Through · 42 — Wei Ji, Before Completion · 44 — Lu, The Wanderer · 45 — Li, That Which Clings, Fire · 46 — Ding, The Cauldron · 47 — Da You, Possession in Great Measure
Same lower trigram (☱ Dui): 3 — Lin, Approach · 11 — Gui Mei, The Marrying Maiden · 19 — Jie, Limitation · 27 — Dui, The Joyous · 35 — Sun, Decrease · 51 — Zhong Fu, Inner Truth · 59 — Lu, Treading
