Sui: thunder within the lake, following and tying

Thunder within the lake: Zhen below, Dui above

Sui (隨) is the 17th hexagram: Zhen (thunder) below, Dui (lake) above, and its Image is "within the lake there is thunder". Three of its lines are yang and three are yin, with the yang lines in places one, four and five. The name literally means to follow, to go along with.

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Sui and Gu: Gu is both the inverse and the reversed form of Sui.

Moving below and delighting above: the push is at the bottom and the pleasant side is on top, and the Commentary on the Judgments (彖传) says the two together are Sui.

The judgment and the Commentary: the same words, said another way

The judgment of Sui is "yuan heng; li zhen; no fault". The first four words are the same as the judgment of Qian (乾), and "no fault" comes after them. The Commentary does not simply copy it.

Sui: the firm comes and goes beneath the soft; moving and delighting: this is Sui. Great success through staying right, no fault; and the world follows the time. The meaning of following the time is great indeed!

The most direct reading of "the firm comes and goes beneath the soft" is in the figure: the first line is a yang (firm) line sitting below the two yin (soft) lines, lines two and three. Now look at the quotation. The judgment's "yuan heng; li zhen" becomes "great success through staying right": the first word is replaced by "great", "li" does not appear, and success and rightness are joined. "No fault" is unchanged, and a new clause follows it: the world follows the time.

The Great Image: dusk comes, go in and rest

Next to many other hexagrams, the Great Image (大象) of Sui is a surprise: it says nothing of achievement or travel.

Within the lake there is thunder: Sui. The noble person, as dusk draws near, goes in to rest at ease.

The first phrase means drawing toward dusk, the second means to rest in comfort. The Great Image has the noble person go indoors to rest as the sky darkens, with no going out and no acting. Read together with the Commentary's last clause about following the time, one possible reading is that what is followed this time is time itself. That is one reading; the text supplies only the two halves.

The six statements: from "go out the gate" to "held and bound"

In the six statements, lines two and three are a pair of sentences that swap their words, and the verbs in the upper lines grow heavier.

Line 1: "The office has a change; staying right brings good fortune. Going out the gate to mix with others brings merit." The first word is usually read as an office or post and the sense of the clause is disputed. "Going out the gate to mix" is to step outside and mix with others, and the Small Image (小象) says "he does not lose it". Line 2: "Tied to the youngster, he loses the grown man." Line 3: "Tied to the grown man, he loses the youngster." The wording is identical apart from the swap, and line 3 adds "in following, what is sought is gained; abide in what is right". The Small Image gives one comment to each: "he cannot have both", and "his aim lets go of what is below".

Line 4: "Following brings a catch; staying on course is ill. Sincere on the way, through clear sight, what fault could there be?" Line 5: "Sincerity toward the excellent: good fortune", with "the place is correct and central". Line 6: "Held and bound; then followed and tied. The king makes an offering on the Western Mountain." The first word is to seize and fetter, the second is a rope. So from "go out the gate" to "tied" to "held and bound … tied", the verbs grow heavier. The Small Image has three words: "the top has run out".

Gu and Jian: the neighbors of Sui, and the Xu Gua

The relation between Sui and Gu is unusual. Change every line of Sui and you get Gu; turn Sui over and you also get Gu. So Gu is both the inverse and the reversed form of Sui.

The reason is that the pairs of lines taken from the two ends, first and sixth, second and fifth, third and fourth, have opposite polarity in each pair, so reversing and swapping arrive at the same figure. The nuclear hexagram is Jian (漸), Gen below and Xun above. The Xu Gua sets Sui after Yu and adds that those who follow in delight are sure to have affairs, so the next is Gu, which it defines as "affairs".

Where there is Yu there must be following; therefore Sui comes next.