Upper trigram
☴
Wind (Xun) above
Gentle penetration.
FamilyEldest daughter
ElementWood
Hexagram 59 of 64
I Ching hexagram 59 ☴☵ Dispersion
I Ching hexagram 59, Dispersion, is wind above, water below. In brief: breaking up what has hardened. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 2, 5 and 6 and its broken lines in 1, 3 and 4.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚋⚊⚋⚋⚊⚊ 010011 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Wind over Water Xun ☴ / Kan ☵
- Every line changed
- № 55 Abundance
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 194 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☵
Water (Kan) below
Danger and depth.
FamilyMiddle son
ElementWater
18 pages · printable
The 2027 Sky Calendar — free PDF
Every retrograde, eclipse, new and full moon of 2027 to the minute, already converted to your city. A month to a page, ready to print.
What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 59
The Judgement
Dispersion: rigid barriers dissolve. Shared purpose — something larger that people gather around — reunites what has scattered, and a bold venture can succeed.
The Image
Wind moving over water, breaking up ice. The lesson is to build shared foundations, like a common place of worship, that bring people 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 59 in James Legge’s translation
“Hwân intimates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and success. The king goes to his ancestral temple; and it will be advantageous to cross the great stream. It will be advantageous to be firm and correct.”
“(The trigram representing) water and that for wind moving above the water form Hwân. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, presented offerings to God and established the ancestral temple.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, divided, shows its subject engaged in rescuing (from the impending evil) and having (the assistance of) a strong horse. There will be good fortune.
- Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows its subject, amid the dispersion, hurrying to his contrivance (for security). All occasion for repentance will disappear.
- Line 3 The third line, divided, shows its subject discarding any regard to his own person. There will be no occasion for repentance.
- Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows its subject scattering the (different) parties (in the state); which leads to great good fortune. From the dispersion (he collects again good men standing out, a crowd) like a mound, which is what ordinary men would not have thought of.
- Line 5 The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject amidst the dispersion issuing his great announcements as the perspiration (flows from his body). He scatters abroad (also) the accumulations in the royal granaries. There will be no error.
- Line 6 · top The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject disposing of (what may be called) its bloody wounds, and going and separating himself from its anxious fears. There will be no error.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 194 — 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.
Dispersion for a decision
Break down the separation, pride or stubbornness that is holding things apart. A common goal will dissolve divisions faster than argument.
I Ching 59 in love and relationships
Softening after a period of coldness. Letting go of ego allows reconnection.
Hexagram 59 at work
Dissolving silos and old grudges. Rally the team around a shared mission.
The six lines of hexagram 59
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yang yin yin yang yang — what each position means.
3 yang and 3 yin lines. Two of the six stand in their proper place, and the pair 3–6 answers.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Water below — danger and depth — is the private, inner side of hexagram 59.
Wind above — gentle penetration — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Water below generates Wood above in the five-element cycle: the lower trigram feeds the upper. Energy moves upward and outward, which is the more productive of the two directions.
Read as a family
The eldest daughter sits above and the middle son below. A brother and a sister, the older one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, so the order is one of seniority, not authority.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 59
Nuclear hexagram
27 · Nourishment
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Zhen (Thunder) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Gen (Mountain) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
55 · Abundance
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Wind over Water becomes Thunder over Fire.
Inverse hexagram
60 · Limitation
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Wind over Water becomes Water over Lake.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Wind above, Water below.
Wind over Water: gentle penetration meeting danger and depth.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 59: Dispersion.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/59/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=I Ching Hexagram 59: Dispersion |url=https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/59/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}