Hexagram 54 of 64
The Younger Bride
歸妹 Guī Mèi
Upper trigram: 震 Zhèn, thunder
Lower trigram: 兌 Duì, lake
The judgment
征凶，无攸利。
Setting out brings misfortune. Nothing is favorable.
The Great Image
澤上有雷，歸妹；君子以永終知敝。
Above the lake there is thunder: this is The Younger Bride. In the same way, the noble person carries things through to a lasting end and knows what wears them down.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初九
歸妹以娣，跛能履，征吉。
The younger sister is given in marriage as a junior wife. A lame person can walk. Setting out brings good fortune.
The old custom of sending a younger sister along as a lesser wife gave a woman little say, and we do not commend it. The lame walker still gets somewhere, so consider what you can do from a position that limits you.
Line 2 九二
眇能視，利幽人之貞。
A one-eyed person can see. It is fitting for the secluded person to hold firm.
Someone with one good eye still sees part of the field. Ask what you are able to perceive from the place where you have been set apart.
Line 3 六三
歸妹以須，反歸以娣。
The younger sister is given in marriage and waits. She goes back and is given as a junior wife.
The line describes a woman sent back and sent again at a lower rank, an old indignity. Ask whether you are being told to wait or to take less than you were led to expect, and what you are willing to accept.
Line 4 九四
歸妹愆期，遲歸有時。
The younger sister's marriage passes its date. A late marriage has its time.
The wedding date has slipped, and the line allows that lateness has its own season. Consider whether something you feel behind on may simply be on a slower calendar.
Line 5 六五
帝乙歸妹，其君之袂，不如其娣之袂良，月幾望，吉。
Di Yi gives his younger sister in marriage. The sleeves of the lady are less fine than the sleeves of her junior. The moon is almost full. Good fortune.
Di Yi was a Shang king, and his sister comes dressed more plainly than her attendant. Ask where you might let someone beside you outshine you without feeling smaller.
Line 6 上六
女承筐无實，士刲羊无血，无攸利。
The woman holds up a basket with nothing in it. The young man knifes a sheep and no blood comes. Nothing is favorable.
An empty basket and a bloodless sacrifice give a rite its form with nothing inside it. Ask whether something in your life is still going through motions that no longer hold anything.
What this hexagram says
This hexagram is lake below and thunder above. Its name describes a younger sister going out in marriage, and at the old courts a younger sister often went with the bride as a junior wife. It stands for entering a situation from a position you did not choose.
The judgment is short and bleak: setting out brings misfortune and nothing is favorable. It speaks from a social world that gave young women little choice, and we read it as a warning about any arrangement that leaves a person without standing. Ask what standing you really have in what you are about to enter.
If your question is about a new job, a joining of families or any arrangement made by others, tradition reads this as a time for being clear about your place. The last line, with its empty basket and bloodless sheep, is a caution about keeping up a form after the substance has gone.
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/歸妹), 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 lines 初九 and 九二, Wikisource (A) keeps 能 (can) in 跛能履 and 眇能視, and adds the note 一作「而」, an alternative reading with 而 (and yet).
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.