Hexagram 16 of 64
Delight
豫 Yù
Upper trigram: 震 Zhèn, thunder
Lower trigram: 坤 Kūn, earth
The judgment
利建侯行師。
It is fitting to establish lords and march the army.
The Great Image
雷出地奮，豫；先王以作樂崇德，殷薦之上帝，以配祖考。
Thunder comes out of the earth and stirs: Delight. In the same way, the former kings made music and honored virtue, offered it lavishly to the Lord on High and gave their ancestors a place beside him.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初六
鳴豫，凶。
Delight that is voiced. Misfortune.
Joy that announces itself is the first warning in this hexagram. Ask who hears you when you talk about your good luck.
Line 2 六二
介于石，不終日，貞吉。
Unmoved as stone. Not waiting for the day to end. Holding firm brings good fortune.
Unmoved as stone, this person acts before the day is out. Consider what you could decide today if you stopped waiting for the mood to pass.
Line 3 六三
盱豫，悔。遲有悔。
Delight that looks up in hope. Regret. Delay brings regret.
The delight here depends on looking up for someone else's favor, and delay brings regret as well. Ask what you would do for yourself if no one were watching you.
Line 4 九四
由豫，大有得。勿疑。朋盍戠。
The source of delight. Great gains. Do not doubt. Friends gather.
Friends gather around the one who is the source of this delight. Consider what you could do that would draw others in, and whether you have doubted it too long.
Line 5 六五
貞疾，恆不死。
Holding firm through illness. Persisting without dying.
This is an old image and says nothing about your health or anyone else's. Consider which long-running strain in your routine you have been living with only because it has not yet broken anything.
Line 6 上六
冥豫，成有渝，无咎。
Delight in the dark. Once complete, it has a change. No blame.
Delight in the dark has gone on long, and still the line allows a change. Ask what you would change now that the party has worn on.
What this hexagram says
This hexagram is earth below and thunder above. Thunder breaks out of the ground in spring and everything stirs. It is about delight, readiness and the energy that moves people together.
The judgment says it is fitting to establish lords and march the army, a sign that high spirits make people ready to follow. The image points to music as the way to share it. Ask what is getting the people around you excited, and what it could be used for.
If your question is about launching something or motivating a group, tradition reads this as a time when shared enthusiasm counts. The lines caution against boasting, against waiting on others for approval and against pleasure that has stopped being noticed.
A hexagram is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
Where this text comes from
The Chinese follows the Wikisource text of the Zhou Yi (its page for this hexagram, 周易/豫), compared with the Project Gutenberg edition. The Great Image comes from the Wikisource page 周易/大象.
- Wikisource, 周易
Retrieved 2026-11-08
- Project Gutenberg eBook 25501, 易經
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Read this hexagram with its traditional commentaries in our library.
Where the sources differ
- In the fourth line, Wikisource reads 朋盍戠 and notes that it is also written 簪. Project Gutenberg reads 朋盍簪, with 簪 meaning a hairpin, as friends gather like hair in a clasp. 戠 is an obscure character read as to gather.
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.