Hexagram 17 of 64
随 suí
Following
兑 (duì, Lake) above · 震 (zhèn, Thunder) below
The Judgment 卦辞
Follow — a person, a movement, a current stronger than you. Following well is an art: keep your own compass while you adapt, and reassess over time what you follow.
The Image 大象
Thunder inside the lake: following. The wise person goes indoors to rest when night falls, and follows the rhythm of the hours.
The six lines 爻辞
Each line of 随 has its own classical text. If a line in your cast is changing, its text is the heart of your reading.
Line 1 · 初九
The guiding line shifts — let it. Step outside the door and meet people: achievement.
「官有渝，贞吉。出门交有功」
Line 2 · 六二
Clinging to the small, you lose the great. Choose what you follow.
「系小子，失丈夫」
Line 3 · 六三
Clinging to the great, you lose the small. Following well gets results — keep your own ground.
「系丈夫，失小子。随有求得，利居贞」
Line 4 · 九四
Following brings you gains — and danger of overreaching. Sincerity on the right path dissolves it.
「随有获，贞凶。有孚在道，以明何咎」
Line 5 · 九五
Sincere toward what is finest. Good fortune in what you follow.
「孚于嘉，吉」
Line 6 · 上六
Bound and held fast, then bound again — devotion this deep reaches the mountain of the west.
「拘系之，乃从维之，王用亨于西山」
If you drew this in a reading
A pattern of tension and craft. This hexagram belongs to the large middle family of mixed patterns: it works, but only along its own grain. Read the Judgment closely — mixed hexagrams usually name the exact condition on which their promise depends.
In yes/no questions this hexagram reads as “not yet clear” — the answer hinges on timing and execution.
The trigrams give the flavor: 兑 (Lake) above — joyous openness — exchange, persuasion, pleasure shared — over 震 (Thunder) below — arousing shock — movement, initiative, sudden change. Where those two energies meet, 随 is born.
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