Guài · Breakthrough
Upper trigram: ☱ Lake · lower trigram: ☰ Heaven
Cut through resolutely what must be cut; denounce in broad daylight, without resorting to arms.
The archaic graph draws a breach, or a dyke giving way under the pressure of an immense accumulated mass of water, or a public word pronounced with absolute firmness from the height of a tribunal. "Guai" symbolises the decisive breakthrough, the act of determination by which one eliminates the last residue of negativity or compromise in order to restore clarity.
The crisis of decision and the necessary breakthrough
This hexagram corresponds to a phase of extreme accumulation of tensions demanding immediate resolution. You are with your back to the wall, facing a toxic situation or relationship that you must settle once and for all. It is not a matter of waging open or violent war, but of setting down an irreversible act of speech or of choice to lance the abscess.
Proclaim one's resolution without resorting to violence
The strategy demands total clarity and an absolute absence of hatred. The text counsels "making one's cause known at the sovereign's court" through sure, firm and transparent speech. Do not answer baseness with baseness; leaning on your own ethical values and maintaining iron discipline will let you blow out the stopper without damage.
Structurally, the figure places the trigram of Heaven (Qian, indomitable vigour) below, beneath the trigram of the Marsh (Dui, communication, the breach) above. Five massive Yang lines push upward to dislodge the single Yin line at the summit. It is the image of tension finding its outlet through a release of energy. The challenge is to channel this force so that it builds rather than destroys.
Each line is read only if it is changing in your cast. A changing line transforms the figure: the link under each text shows which hexagram it leads to.
Three-coin or yarrow-stalk cast, changing lines, outlook figure — computed on your device, no account.