Hexagram 43 of 64
夬 guài
Breakthrough
兑 (duì, Lake) above · 乾 (qián, Heaven) below
The Judgment 卦辞
The time demands a clean break with what is wrong. Announce it openly, not with anger but with resolve — and once decided, see it through to the end.
The Image 大象
The lake rises to heaven: breakthrough. The wise person gives wealth to those below and stays untainted by favoritism.
The six lines 爻辞
Each line of 夬 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
Strength in the forward toes — marching before you can win. That is the mistake.
「壮于前趾，往不胜为咎」
Line 2 · 九二
The alarm sounds — enemies move at night. Be ready; do not despair.
「惕号，莫夜有戎，勿恤」
Line 3 · 九三
Hardness in the face: misfortune. The wise break clean — walking alone through rain, soaked and resented, no blame.
「壮于頄，有凶。君子夬夬，独行遇雨，若濡有愠，无咎」
Line 4 · 九四
Raw and sore, limping forward — follow the ram straight and regret vanishes. Good advice you refuse to hear.
「臀无肤，其行次且，牵羊悔亡，闻言不信」
Line 5 · 九五
Breaking through like the tender plant shoots — along the middle way, no blame.
「苋陆夬夬，中行无咎」
Line 6 · 上六
No more crying out — the end arrives anyway. What was not settled early ends badly.
「无号，终有凶」
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 乾 (Heaven) below — creative force — initiative, clarity, persistence. Where those two energies meet, 夬 is born.
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