The name 名
Suí 隨 contains the walking radical; its root sense is to walk behind someone, and by extension to comply or go along. The Za Gua says “Following has no special occasion”: nothing in particular happens; one simply moves or stays as time and conditions allow. When a friend asks when to meet and you answer “any time,” that ease is the spirit of the gua.
The image 象
Duì above is the marsh, the youngest daughter, joy; Zhèn below is thunder, the eldest son, movement. Thunder stirs beneath and the marsh follows gladly, so “moving and delighting.” By line change, the top line of Pǐ 否 descends to become the first line: the firm places itself beneath the soft, and those above are glad to follow. The Xici says that harnessing oxen and riding horses, “to haul heavy loads far and benefit the world,” was drawn from this gua.
Layers of images 層
A gua can be read on several levels at once: the trigrams as members of a family (father, mother, eldest to youngest sons and daughters), the six lines as ranks in an organisation (from newcomer to ruler), and as forces of nature and animals. Each extra level adds meaning to the line texts.
Read as a family
Below is Zhèn, the eldest son; above is Duì, the youngest daughter. The older man willingly takes the lower place and lets the young woman stand above, and so she follows him gladly: thunder stirs below, the lake rejoices above. Following is not one-sided obedience; the one with standing lowers himself first, and then others are glad to follow. Like a senior colleague who lets a younger one stand in front, and finds the team follows more closely for it.
Line 1, “going out of the gate to mix with others brings merit”: lines 2–4 form a nuclear Gèn, the gate tower. Line 1 sits outside it, the one who has stepped over the threshold: not staying inside his own small circle but going out to deal with others, and that is where achievement comes from.
Line 2, “clinging to the little boy, losing the grown man,” and Line 3, “clinging to the grown man, losing the little boy”: the boy is Line 1 below, the man Line 4 above. Line 2 stays close to Line 1 and loses support from above; Line 3, beaten to Line 1, turns to Line 4. Lines 3–5 form a nuclear Xùn, which means a threefold profit at market, so “following, it gets what it seeks.” Whom you follow decides whom you lose.
Line 5, “trust in what is excellent; good fortune”: the ruler is central and correct and corresponds with Line 2 below. “Excellent” often points to a good match of yin and yang: when the one at the top deals in good faith, the worthy below follow from the heart. A leader’s place is secure only through the following he earns honestly.
Top line, “held fast and bound; the king makes offering on the western mountain”: at the end of the road the top line turns back to Line 5 and is tied tightly to it. The nuclear Xùn of lines 3–5 is rope, hence the binding; the upper Duì sits in the west on the later-heaven compass, hence the western mountain. Being held can also mean being valued.
Turn Suí upside down and you get Gǔ, and flipping all six lines also gives Gǔ: the two are both inverse and opposite of each other. Suí is everyone gladly following in harmony; Gǔ is following for so long that no one dares say no, and decay sets in. A team’s easy “following” today, left unwatched, becomes tomorrow’s “rot” that must be cleaned up.
Swap the trigrams and you get Guī Mèi, the Marrying Maiden: now the eldest son is above and the youngest daughter below, an elder brother giving away a younger sister. The same pair, eldest son and youngest daughter: with the man below it is Suí, and everyone is glad; with the man above it is Guī Mèi, full of cautions. Who is willing to take the lower place changes the whole relationship.
In sequence 序
豫必有隨，故受之以隨。
The Sequence says: “Delight is sure to bring followers; hence Following comes next.” When someone is visibly content, others want to walk with them. Everyone follows good fortune; that is ordinary human nature.
The judgment 辭
隨：元亨。利貞。无咎。
“Following: origination, success, fitness, steadfastness; no blame.” All four virtues appear, and yet the verdict is only “no blame.” Going along with the times and with others, there is a road; keep to what is right and you will not go wrong, but there will be no great founding triumph. No blame is already a good result; there is no need to crave more.
Commentary on the judgment 彖
彖曰：隨，剛來而下柔，動而說，隨。大亨貞，无咎，而天下隨時，隨時之義大矣哉！
“The firm comes and places itself beneath the soft; moving and delighting: Following.” “Great success and steadfastness, no blame, and all under heaven follows the time.” Plants bloom and fruit by the seasons, as Confucius said: “Does heaven speak? The four seasons run their course and the hundred things are born.” Human beings must judge, reading the times and adjusting, hence: “Great indeed is the meaning of following the time!”
The great image 象
象曰：澤中有雷，隨；君子以嚮晦入宴息。
“Thunder within the marsh: Following. The noble person, as dusk approaches, goes in to rest.” Thunder should rumble; here it lies still inside the lake. Most Great Images speak of cultivating virtue; this one speaks of bedtime, which is simply following heaven’s rhythm in daily life. To keep going for long, one must know how to stop. With electric light and shops open all night, this may be the hardest counsel of all.
The six lines 爻
Ruling line The first line rules: the Commentary’s “the firm comes and places itself beneath the soft” describes precisely this line, the top yang of Pǐ come down beneath the two yin lines.
The path of the six lines, bottom to top
Line 1 is where following begins: one must first be willing to step out the door and deal with the world before there is anything to follow. Lines 2 and 3 bring the choice: cling to the small thing at hand and lose the greater one above; choosing whom to follow also means letting others go. Line 4 enters the upper trigram with gains and followers of its own, and now honesty and openness matter most, or its success invites suspicion. Line 5 is the centre: sincerity earns the following of the worthy, and the bond holds. At the top, following has run its course and the line is tied fast; that tie can be a constraint, or the sign of being valued enough to be kept.
初九官有渝，貞吉。出門交有功。
In plain words
The official adapts; steadfastness brings good fortune. Going out of the gate to deal with others brings merit.
Close reading
Yang in a yang place, correct, with no response from the fourth line, also yang. It lies outside the inner Gèn (lines two to four), which is a gateway, hence “going out of the gate.” An official’s duty is to follow the law, but circumstances vary, and rigid uniformity creates injustice; one must hold the principle and adapt its application. The Small Image: “following what is right brings good fortune,” and “nothing is lost.” Adapt without leaving the right path, and do business in the open, not behind closed doors.
One level deeper
Line 1, “going out of the gate to mix with others brings merit”: lines 2–4 form a nuclear Gèn, the gate tower. Line 1 sits outside it, the one who has stepped over the threshold: not staying inside his own small circle but going out to deal with others, and that is where achievement comes from.
If you drew this line
Keep your principles, but adjust your methods to the real situation. Work in the open and deal with people transparently, and it will bear fruit.
Reaching for a drowning sister-in-law
Chunyu Kun asked Mencius whether the rule that men and women should not hand things directly to one another was a rule of propriety. It is, said Mencius. Then if your sister-in-law is drowning, Chunyu pressed, do you reach out your hand to save her? Not to save her, Mencius replied, would be the act of a wolf. The rule is propriety; reaching out to a drowning sister-in-law is 權, discretion. The constant and the adaptation do not conflict, and that is what “the official adapts; steadfast, good fortune” means.
六二係小子，失丈夫。
In plain words
Clinging to the little boy, one loses the grown man.
Close reading
Yin in a yin place, central and correct, with a proper partner in the fifth line; but the ruling first line is right beside it, beneath it, and it seizes what is near. What is below is called small, so the first line is “the little boy”; the fifth line above is “the grown man.” In this gua the yin lines cannot stand alone and must hold on to something, like a person going under who grabs whatever comes to hand. The Small Image: “one cannot be with both.”
If you drew this line
Work out what in your situation is the nearby “boy” and what is the far-reaching “man.” Grasping what is close often costs what matters more.
六三係丈夫，失小子。隨，有求得利，居貞。
In plain words
Clinging to the grown man, one loses the little boy. Following, what is sought is obtained; it is fitting to abide in steadfastness.
Close reading
Yin in a yang place, out of position, unanswered by the top line. The first line below has already been claimed by the second, so it turns upward to the fourth, which here is “the grown man,” while the first line is “the boy.” Lines three to five form an inner Xùn, associated with “three-fold profit in the market,” hence “what is sought is obtained”; but gain is exactly when one must abide in steadfastness rather than chase profit. The Small Image: “its will lets go of what is below.”
One level deeper
Line 2, “clinging to the little boy, losing the grown man,” and Line 3, “clinging to the grown man, losing the little boy”: the boy is Line 1 below, the man Line 4 above. Line 2 stays close to Line 1 and loses support from above; Line 3, beaten to Line 1, turns to Line 4. Lines 3–5 form a nuclear Xùn, which means a threefold profit at market, so “following, it gets what it seeks.” Whom you follow decides whom you lose.
If you drew this line
Aligning upward can bring results, but be clear about what you have given up. When gains come, keep your measure and do not let them change you.
九四隨有獲，貞凶。有孚在道，以明，何咎。
In plain words
Following brings gains; to cling to them is ominous. With sincerity on the right path, and with clarity, what blame?
Close reading
Yang in a yin place, out of position, unanswered by the first line. It lies within the inner Xùn, hence “gains,” and at the top of the inner Gèn, stopping; in a gua of following, to stop and hold fast goes against the whole movement, hence “steadfast, ominous,” where 貞 means clinging unchanged. This is the gua’s only “ominous”: gains won by following, if treated as one’s own due, eventually bring trouble. The remedy is the second half, “sincerity on the path, with clarity”; the Small Image calls it “the merit of clarity.”
If you drew this line
When gains arrive, ask whether you earned them or rode someone else’s wind. When the situation shifts, be ready to let go; act with sincerity and clear judgment and you will not go wrong.
Fan Li sails away
Fan Li helped King Goujian of Yue destroy Wu, and was made supreme general. Judging that one cannot long stay under a great name, he took a boat and left by sea. Before going he wrote to his colleague Wen Zhong: “When the birds are gone, the good bow is put away; when the cunning hare is dead, the hound is boiled.” The king, he warned, could share hardship but not ease; why not leave? Wen Zhong stayed away from court pleading illness, but was in the end sent a sword and made to take his life. Gains from following become dangerous when held too long; the one who can let go survives.
九五孚于嘉，吉。
In plain words
Sincere in what is excellent; good fortune.
Close reading
Yang in a yang place, central and correct, answered by the second line below; it sits in Duì, joy, at a time when people are disposed to follow, so everything aligns. Words like 嘉, excellence, often mark a proper yin-yang correspondence. The Small Image: “its position is correct and central.” Doing what one’s position requires and promoting what is good, one is naturally followed.
One level deeper
Line 5, “trust in what is excellent; good fortune”: the ruler is central and correct and corresponds with Line 2 below. “Excellent” often points to a good match of yin and yang: when the one at the top deals in good faith, the worthy below follow from the heart. A leader’s place is secure only through the following he earns honestly.
If you drew this line
Your position is sound and your intent sincere. Stay on the path of what is good, without becoming self-opinionated, and people will follow.
上六拘係之，乃從維之。王用亨于西山。
In plain words
Seized and bound fast, then released; the king makes offering on the Western Mountain.
Close reading
Yin in a yin place, correct, unanswered by the third line. At the end of the gua, with nowhere further to go, it turns back to the fifth line and is held fast; the inner Xùn below is rope, the image of binding. Older commentary read 維 as tying tighter still; another reading takes it as loosening, giving capture followed by release. Duì is the west, so the Western Mountain is Mount Qi, homeland of the Zhou; 亨 is read 享, to make offering. The Small Image: “at the top, it is exhausted.”
One level deeper
Top line, “held fast and bound; the king makes offering on the western mountain”: at the end of the road the top line turns back to Line 5 and is tied tightly to it. The nuclear Xùn of lines 3–5 is rope, hence the binding; the upper Duì sits in the west on the later-heaven compass, hence the western mountain. Being held can also mean being valued.
If you drew this line
Bound at the end of the road, do not thrash; going along with the times, you will be freed. Once free, be grateful and hold on less tightly.
Stories 典
King Wen imprisoned at Youli
Under the last Shang king, Zhou, the Marquis of Chong slandered Ji Chang, Lord of the West, saying that his accumulated virtue was drawing the lords to him, to Shang’s peril. The king had him imprisoned at Youli. Hong Yao and other Zhou men sought out rare gifts, a beauty from the Youshen clan and fine-marked horses from the Lirong among them, and presented them through the king’s favourite, Fei Zhong. Delighted, the king declared that any one of these would be enough to free the Lord of the West, pardoned him, and even granted him bow, arrows and axes with the right to wage war. The Shiji suggests that during his captivity he probably extended the eight trigrams into sixty-four hexagrams. The top line, “seized and bound, then released; the king makes offering on the Western Mountain,” has long been read as this episode: compliant in captivity, then home to Mount Qi to give thanks.
A choice that cannot have both
A teacher had an outstanding master’s student who planned to leave the programme and take a job because his parents were ageing. Talked out of it once, the student came back three months later, this time to announce that his mind was made up. Saddened, the teacher cast a reading early one morning and drew Following with no changing lines. The Judgment said “no blame,” and the paired second and third lines, clinging to one and losing the other, made it plain that life is a chain of choices that cannot have it both ways. People have their own purposes; scholarship is a lifelong matter and need not be finished in a classroom. Regretting the loss of talent, he chose to let it be.
Insight 悟
Following reminds us that much of life is simply ordinary, and that “no blame” is a good result; not every moment calls for great fortune. Its discipline has three parts. Timeliness: read the times, move when it is time to move and rest when it is time to rest. Choice: whom to follow and whom to leave, since one rarely gets both. Release: gains that came from following are not proof of one’s own ability, and must be loosened when circumstances change. The gua’s only “ominous” falls on “following brings gains,” which shows that the hard part is not choosing well but letting go afterwards.