Hexagram 54 · line 6
The Marrying Maiden
歸妹Guī Mèi
The woman holds an empty basket; the man slaughters a sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing is beneficial.
Line statement
上六
女承筐无實，士刲羊无血，无攸利。
The woman holds an empty basket; the man slaughters a sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing is beneficial.
An empty basket and a bloodless sacrifice leave the marriage rite without its expected substance. Changing Line 6 makes Fire above Lake, Hexagram 38. The contrast with opposition concerns the relation between an outward rite and the bond it is meant to express.
Computed position
How this place works
- Trigram position
- outer · boundary
Line 6 is the boundary of the outer trigram.
- Polarity and place
- yin in an even place: aligned
Its yin polarity matches the traditional even-place convention.
- Correspondence
- Line 3: same polarity
Its counterpart is Line 3; the two share a polarity, so this structural correspondence is not responsive.
One line changes