Meaning
One broken line is left at the top of five whole lines: in the Han reading of the year, yang is one step from filling the figure, and the last of yin is about to be removed. 夬 means to part, to decide, to break through, and the tradition reads the hexagram as the decisive removal of what still stands in the way. The Judgment describes how: openly, before the court, with a sincere appeal, aware of the danger, telling one's own people first, and not by taking up arms; then it is good to go forward.
The Image draws an unexpected lesson from the lake that has risen above the sky: what has piled up must be given out, and the superior man distributes what he has to those below him. Among the Han calendar's twelve hexagrams 夬 is the third lunar month, late spring. In our own reading, it is resolve that is open and measured, and the lines warn both against rushing and against stubbornness passing for resolve.
The lines
The first line advances "in (the pride of) strength" with its toes, in Legge's words, and does not succeed. The second is anxious and calls out, and need not fear what comes at night; the third walks alone through the rain and is resented by its own side, and is not blamed. The fourth cannot move well and will not be led; the fifth roots out weeds with determination, as one uproots purslane. The top line, the last weak line, has no one to call on.
Within 夬 lies 乾, hexagram 1; its pair is 姤, hexagram 44, and every line flipped gives 剝, hexagram 23.
In the birth cast
The time cast arrives at 夬 when the year, month and day leave 2 on eight, which puts 兌 lake above, and the same total with the hour added leaves 1, which puts 乾 heaven below. Which line moves depends on what the whole total leaves on six, and each line turns the figure into a different hexagram:
- Line 1 (初九) moving: becomes 28 大過 Dà Guò, Great Excess
- Line 2 (九二) moving: becomes 49 革 Gé, Changing the Hide
- Line 3 (九三) moving: becomes 58 兌 Duì, Openness
- Line 4 (九四) moving: becomes 5 需 Xū, Waiting
- Line 5 (九五) moving: becomes 34 大壯 Dà Zhuàng, Great Power
- Line 6 (上六) moving: becomes 1 乾 Qián, Heaven's Strength
Lines 2 to 5 give the hexagram within, 1 乾 Qián, Heaven's Strength. Everyone born in the same lunar day and double hour has the same cast, so the figure describes a moment, not a person.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Trigram virtues (Shuogua, chapter 7)
- 乾 strong, untiring below; 兌 pleased, open above, in our English sourced
- Trigram family places (Shuogua)
- father below, youngest daughter above sourced
- Trigram body and animal images (Shuogua)
- head and horse below; mouth and sheep above sourced
- Trigram phases (a classical correspondence: the Plum Blossom text's table)
- Metal below, Metal above. The Han assignment of 梅花易數, book 1, also used by Jing Fang; not stated as such in the Zhouyi sourced
- Month in the Han calendars (sovereign hexagram)
- The third lunar month (辰), with five yang lines sourced
- Inverse and opposite
- Upside down: 44 姤 Gòu, Encounter; every line flipped: 23 剝 Bō, Stripping Away sourced
- Human Design gate
- Gate 43, from 228.875° to 234.5° of the tropical zodiac on Ra Uru Hu's wheel (1987): a modern placing, not the I Ching's sourced
- Our English title
- Breakthrough: EsoTerrier's own, from the sense of 夬 our construction
How the schools read it
- The Zhouyi, in Legge's translation (1882)
- “Kwâi requires (in him who would fulfil its meaning) … a sincere and earnest appeal”
- The Image (大象), one of the Wings, in our paraphrase
- The waters of a marsh mounting above the sky; the superior man gives out his emoluments to those below him and does not let his gifts pile up.
- The Han calendars (1st century BCE)
- The hexagram of the third lunar month, the month of 辰: yang growing from below.
- The Plum Blossom method (Ming)
- A figure reached by numbers: 兌 above when the year, month and day leave 2 on eight, 乾 below when the same total with the hour leaves 1.
- Human Design (Ra Uru Hu, 1987)
- Takes the number for its gate 43 and puts it on the zodiac; its own reading, which we do not quote.
- EsoTerrier
- The lake above heaven, about to break: what must be removed is named openly and dealt with resolutely, without force of arms, and what has piled up is given out.
Claims about it
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Gate 43 of Human Design, at 228.875° to 234.5° of the zodiac, is where the I Ching itself places hexagram 43.
falseWhat the record shows: The wheel is Shao Yong's circle rotated by Ra Uru Hu in 1987 to 1989 so that hexagram 41 starts at 2° Aquarius. No Chinese source we found puts the hexagrams on degrees of the zodiac.
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Being born under 夬 Guài fixes a person's character.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A modern reading with no source in the tradition. The Zhouyi has no birth hexagram; the cast reads a figure, not a person, and everyone born in the same lunar day and double hour shares it.
