Trigram
☱ Lake
兌Duì · The Joyous
- Quality
- joyful
- Family
- the youngest daughter
- Animal
- sheep
- Body
- mouth
- Direction
- west
- Season
- autumn
Lake is the trigram of joy. Two solid lines at the bottom, one broken line on top. Wilhelm calls it The Joyous: a joy that is cheerful and open, and that catches on in others.
Soft outside, strong within
The image from nature is a lake. Still, shining water that reflects the light, where animals come to drink and people gather. A lake refreshes and nourishes the land around it, without flowing away like a river.
In the lines, the yin line is at the top, resting on two yang lines. The soft is on the outside, the strong beneath it. That is the key to the trigram: real joy is friendly and open on the surface, but rests on something solid. Without that solid base, cheerfulness turns hollow and slides into complacency or flattery. The trigram is the reverse of Wind, where the soft line is at the bottom. The quality that belongs to it is joyful.
How Lake shows up
Lake is the good conversation. The friend you laugh with and afterwards know again what to do. The team lead who loosens up a tense meeting with humour. People who learn together and make each other better for it. Wilhelm points out that two lakes joined to each other do not dry up so quickly, because each replenishes the other. That is exactly what friendship and exchange do.
Lake also belongs to speaking, persuading and singing. Joy you share makes others glad to follow you. But that is also where the trap lies. If all you want is to be pleasant, you start telling people what they want to hear. The joy of this trigram is not smoothness, but a cheerfulness that stays honest.
The youngest daughter and the sheep
In the family, Lake is the youngest daughter. Her one yin line stands at the top, in the last place, and that makes her the youngest. The image fits: the youngest in a family is often the one who keeps the mood light and makes the others laugh.
The animal is the sheep, which looks soft but can be stubborn: gentle outside, tenacious inside, just like the lines of the trigram. In the body Lake is the mouth. In the arrangement of King Wen, the later heaven Wilhelm writes about, Lake stands in the west and belongs to autumn. It is harvest time, when the work is done and there is reason to rejoice.
Lake below, Lake above
When Lake is at the bottom of your hexagram, your inner attitude is friendly and open. In hexagram 10, Treading, Lake lies beneath Heaven: the weak follows the strong. It is the image of someone who accidentally steps on a tiger's tail and still is not bitten, because he behaves with courtesy and a light touch. Good manners and a cheerful tone carry you through a situation that would otherwise be dangerous.
When Lake is at the top, you see the joy outwardly: in how people come together and connect. In hexagram 45, Gathering Together, Lake stands above Earth: water collecting above the land. It is the image of people gathering around something that binds them. Where much comes together, vigilance is needed too, so that the group does not fall apart.
When Lake doubles itself, in hexagram 58, The Joyous, there is joy within and without, the image of two lakes feeding each other. The lesson there is to share joy, and to let it rest on what is real.
Hexagrams with Lake below
- 10
Treading - 19
Approach - 38
Opposition - 41
Decrease - 54
The Marrying Maiden - 58
The Joyous - 60
Limitation - 61
Inner Truth
Hexagrams with Lake above
- 17
Following - 28
Preponderance of the Great - 31
Influence - 43
Break-through - 45
Gathering Together - 47
Oppression - 49
Revolution - 58
The Joyous