Hexagram 45
泽地萃
Gathering Together
Hexagram 45, Cui (Gathering Together), is Lake over Earth - water gathering on the land, the many small streams flowing into one body.
Upper Trigram
☱
兑 (金)
Lower Trigram
☷
坤 (土)
Palace
兑 Palace
Shi / Ying Lines
Shi: Line 2 · Ying: Line 5
The 兑 trigram (金) sits above the 坤 trigram (土), forming 泽地萃. This hexagram belongs to the 兑 Palace.
Judgment (卦辞)
Gathering Together. Success. The king approaches his temple.
Judgment text follows the Wilhelm–Baynes translation (The I Ching or Book of Changes, Princeton University Press), quoted for commentary.
Image (象辞)
Over the earth, the lake: the image of Gathering Together.
Line Texts (爻辞)
If sincere but not to the end, confusion and gathering. (有孚不终)
Letting oneself be drawn brings good fortune. (引吉)
Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing furthers. (萃如嗟如)
Great good fortune. No blame. (大吉)
In gathering together one has position. (萃有位)
Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears. No blame. (齎咨涕洟)
Hexagram 45 in Love & Relationships
Relationships: Bring people together around meaning, not just convenience. Shared values sustain what shared interest cannot.
Hexagram 45 in Career & Decisions
Career: A team is only as strong as its shared purpose. Clarify the 'why' before gathering more people.
Hexagram 45 as a yes / no answer
Leans yes
The hexagram's core image favors moving forward — conditions support the asking.
The I Ching reads situations, not fixed outcomes — your reading can weigh the moving lines with this leaning.
In-Depth Analysis[+]
Hexagram 45, Cui (Gathering Together), is Lake over Earth - water gathering on the land, the many small streams flowing into one body. This is the hexagram of assembly, of people and resources coming together around a shared purpose. The judgment describes the king approaching his temple - gathering is sacred, requiring a common center of meaning. The lines trace the hazards of gathering: sincerity that does not endure, gathering amid sighs, and the tears of the final line when the assembly dissolves. Cui teaches that true gathering needs a shared ideal to hold it together; without one, crowds become mobs.
Historical Stories[+]
The building of the Great Wall gathered the labor of millions across dynasties, held together by the shared purpose of defense - a gathering that transformed a landscape.
The Apollo program assembled hundreds of thousands of people around a single impossible goal, proving what gathering around a shared ideal can achieve.
Practical Applications[+]
Career: A team is only as strong as its shared purpose. Clarify the 'why' before gathering more people.
Relationships: Bring people together around meaning, not just convenience. Shared values sustain what shared interest cannot.
Personal Growth: What are you gathering into your life - people, habits, commitments? Is there a common center holding them together?
Classical Sources for Hexagram 45
黄金策 (The Golden Strategy)明 (Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644)
The subject-category diagnostic framework and its mnemonic verse formulas for common life-domain questions.
Related Hexagrams
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