Dui (the Lake) Yi Jing trigram: joy and exchange

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Dui, the Lake, is the trigram with one broken line above two solid lines: joy, speech, exchange. Image, attributes, hexagram no. 58 and pointers for reflection.

Key points

Trigram	☱ one broken line on top, two solid lines below
Image	The Lake (or the pond, the marsh)
Quality	Joyful, one who rejoices and who speaks
Family	The youngest daughter
Element	Metal
Direction	Southeast (earlier heaven); west (later heaven)
Double hexagram	Hexagram no. 58, Dui

An opening at the top

Dui (pronounced roughly "dway-ee") places one broken line above two solid lines: the yin opens at the top, like the surface of a lake resting on a solid mass. The image is the Lake, or a pond; the quality is joy, in the sense of shared pleasure and the cheerfulness of an exchange. The character is also linked to the mouth, and therefore to speech.

Dui is the youngest of the daughters, the feminine counterpart of Gen, the youngest son. Where the Mountain holds back and stays silent, the Lake opens and converses.

Traditional attributes

Domain	Traditional association
Nature	Lake, pond, marsh, mist, springs
Character	Joyful, sociable, persuasive
Family	Youngest daughter
Body (symbolic)	The mouth
Animal	The sheep (or the goat)
Season and direction	Autumn, west (later heaven); southeast (earlier heaven)
Element	Metal

The mouth, speech, the ponds where people gather: everything here speaks of exchange. These correspondences come from the Shuogua and from the system of the five phases.

Hexagram no. 58

Two Dui stacked one above the other give hexagram no. 58, lake upon lake. The text evokes the joy that circulates between friends, shared conversation and shared study. My summary: a satisfaction that is shared is worth more than a solitary pleasure, provided it remains sincere and does not slide into flattery.

Commentators warn against a joy that is only appearance: easy pleasures, being swept along by others. The tradition does not condemn joy; it asks that it rest on something solid, which is what the two solid lines of the trigram represent.

A reading for reflection

If Dui comes up, ask yourself: what truly brings me joy at the moment? Who can I talk to about it? Where do my pleasant words hide a reservation? The trigram combines goodwill and honesty in dialogue.

At work: negotiating, presenting, persuading with simplicity; a meeting that goes well.
In relationships: shared cheerfulness, confidences; be wary of surface compliments.
For yourself: allowing yourself a simple pleasure, without guilt.

These are pointers for reflection, never announcements. One last nuance: the lake is also a mirror, and the tradition sometimes sees in it an invitation to look at what we say about ourselves with the same attention we give to what we say to others.

In a consultation

In the lower (inner) position, Dui points to your mood and your wish to exchange; in the upper (outer) position, to the atmosphere around you and what is being said to you. Paired with Heaven, it forms figures of resolution (a decision finally spoken aloud); paired with Fire, figures of change. Only the complete hexagram is read: a single trigram on its own is just one ingredient.

With Dui, the round of the eight trigrams is complete. Go back over them in the Yi Jing guide, or reread the introduction to the book.