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Hexagram 58 of 64

I Ching hexagram 58 ☱☱ The Joyous

I Ching hexagram 58, The Joyous, is lake above, lake below. In brief: open, shared pleasure. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1, 2, 4 and 5 and its broken lines in 3 and 6.

Lines, bottom up
⚊⚊⚋⚊⚊⚋ 110110 · 1 = solid
Trigrams
Lake over Lake Dui ☱ / Dui ☱
Every line changed
№ 52 Keeping Still
In Legge, 1882
p. 192 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16

Legge, The Yî King, 1882.

Paired with it line by line — changed, turned over or read from the inner lines: 52, Keeping Still, 57, The Gentle and 37, The Family.

Also with Lake above: 17, Following, 28, Great Exceeding and 31, Influence.

Also with Lake below: 10, Treading, 19, Approach and 38, Opposition.

To draw a hexagram of your own, cast the I Ching with three coins.

I Ching Hexagram 58: The Joyous

Upper trigram

☱

Lake (Dui) above

Joy and openness.

FamilyYoungest daughter
ElementMetal

Lower trigram

☱

Lake (Dui) below

Joy and openness.

FamilyYoungest daughter
ElementMetal

What the text says, in plain terms

The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 58

The Judgement

The joyous: genuine gladness shared between people brings success, as long as it rests on sincerity rather than flattery.

The Image

Two lakes joined, refreshing each other. The lesson is that friends meet to discuss and practice together.

A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →

Primary source

Hexagram 58 in James Legge’s translation

The Judgement
“Tui intimates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and attainment. (But) it will be advantageous to be firm and correct.”
The Image
“(Two symbols representing) the waters of a marsh, one over the other, form Tui. The superior man, in accordance with this, (encourages) the conversation of friends and (the stimulus of) their (common) practice.”

The lines

  1. Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, shows the pleasure of (inward) harmony. There will be good fortune.
  2. Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows the pleasure arising from (inward) sincerity. There will be good fortune. Occasion for repentance will disappear.
  3. Line 3 The third line, divided, shows its subject bringing round himself whatever can give pleasure. There will be evil.
  4. Line 4 The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject deliberating about what to seek his pleasure in, and not at rest. He borders on what would be injurious, but there will be cause for joy.
  5. Line 5 The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject trusting in one who would injure him. The situation is perilous.
  6. Line 6 · top The topmost line, divided, shows the pleasure of its subject in leading and attracting others.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 192 — read the original text. Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.

The Joyous for a decision

Choose the option that brings real, shared satisfaction. Be encouraging and open — and wary of pleasure that is only on the surface.

I Ching 58 in love and relationships

Warmth, conversation and enjoyment of each other's company. A good time for social connection.

Hexagram 58 at work

Collaboration, teaching and customer-facing work. A positive atmosphere improves results, provided it is honest.

The six lines of hexagram 58

Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yang yin yang yang yin — what each position means.

Hexagram 58: Lake over Lake
Hexagram 58, The Joyous, line by line from the bottomlineplace · answer1Line 1 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 42Line 2 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 53Line 3 · yin, brokenout of placeno answer from 64Line 4 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 15Line 5 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 26Line 6 · yin, brokenin its placeno answer from 3LowerDuiLakeUpperDuiLakeKing Wen sequence · read bottom to topastrohot.com

4 yang and 2 yin lines. Three of the six stand in their proper place, and none of the three pairs answer each other.

What the two trigrams do to each other

Inner and outer

Lake below — joy and openness — is the private, inner side of hexagram 58.

Lake above — joy and openness — is the world that side meets.

The five-element relation

Both trigrams are Metal, so nothing in the figure pulls against anything else. That makes the reading unusually single-minded — and unusually short of internal correction.

Read as a family

The youngest daughter sits both above and below. The same figure doubled — the purest form of what the trigram describes.

Calculated from the lines

Hexagrams connected to hexagram 58

Hexagram 37, The Family

Nuclear hexagram

37 · The Family

What is happening beneath the surface.

Lines 2–4 give Li (Fire) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Xun (Wind) as the upper.

Hexagram 52, Keeping Still

Opposite hexagram

52 · Keeping Still

The situation turned inside out.

Change all six lines and Lake over Lake becomes Mountain over Mountain.

Hexagram 57, The Gentle

Inverse hexagram

57 · The Gentle

The situation seen from the other side.

Turn the figure upside down and Lake over Lake becomes Wind over Wind.

None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.

The image

Lake above, Lake below.

Lake over Lake: joy and openness meeting joy and openness.

← 57 · All 64 · 59 →

54 The Marrying Maiden 55 Abundance 56 The Wanderer 57 The Gentle 59 Dispersion 60 Limitation 61 Inner Truth

Sources

  1. James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 192

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

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