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Hexagram 50 — Huan, Dispersion
Chronological no. 50 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 59 · 渙
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the eldest daughter
the middle son
Wind moves above Water: the image of dispersion. Wind stirs the surface, scattering what had frozen solid, breaking the ice into fluid motion — a dissolution that liberates rather than destroys. Thus the ancient kings made offerings to the Sovereign above and raised up temples: when what separated beings begins to dissolve, it is the moment to rebuild a shared bond, a common center.
What clashed disperses and turns fluid again. The most rigid blockages end up, given time and the right movement, dispersing on their own. This line teaches that dissolution is not a loss but a return to the fluid state, a prelude to any new form.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, emptiness closes over: what was still an opening begins to fill.
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 listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert 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, 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 13 — Feng, Abundance (63 − 50 = 13): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 13, 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
49 — Yi, Increase · 51 — Zhong Fu, Inner Truth
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☴ Xun): 48 — Guan, Contemplation · 49 — Yi, Increase · 51 — Zhong Fu, Inner Truth · 52 — Jian, Development · 53 — Jia Ren, The Family · 54 — Xun, The Gentle, Wind · 55 — Xiao Chu, The Taming Power of the Small
Same lower trigram (☵ Kan): 2 — Shi, The Army · 10 — Jie, Deliverance · 18 — Kan, The Abysmal · 26 — Kun, Oppression · 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly · 42 — Wei Ji, Before Completion · 58 — Song, Conflict
