I Ching / Hexagram 38

Hexagram 38: K'uei, Opposition

Describes sides drifting apart through difference or misunderstanding, and advises seeking small agreements instead of forcing unity.

Fire rises and the lake’s water sinks: two forces moving apart.

The situation

Positions are drifting apart and each side is pulling in a different direction. This hexagram describes a falling-out, sometimes just a misunderstanding. Great undertakings become complicated, but in small matters understanding is still possible, and difference can become complementary.

The advice

You’d do well to seek modest agreements and keep your identity without turning every difference into a wall. Avoid forcing unity or answering hostility with more hostility.

The judgement

The traditional judgment is brief and nuanced: in small matters, good fortune. It acknowledges that opposition advises against great shared undertakings and that, even so, there is room for modest gestures that keep contact open. The classical commentaries explain opposition through the image of two sisters who live in the same house and whose wills end up taking different paths. They also point out that opposition has a function: heaven and earth are separate and yet work together; man and woman are different and seek each other out. Today you can recognize this in a couple who misunderstand each other, in partners who disagree or in two departments that compete. The judgment proposes keeping your own identity, treating even the hostile with courtesy and moving forward through partial agreements. Difference can become complementary as long as no one tries to impose unity by force.

Fire over Lake: the two trigrams

Above is Fire, which tends to rise; below, the Lake, whose waters tend to sink. The image shows two forces moving in opposite directions and therefore drawing apart. Fire represents clarity and the Lake joy, but their natural movements carry them away from each other. Tradition also associates the two trigrams with two daughters, the middle one and the youngest, who live under the same roof with different inclinations. The meaning of the hexagram arises from that combination: opposition springs from the nature of each party, with no need for ill will. The lesson is that each element should keep its own character. The fire will keep burning and the lake will stay serene, and living together is possible as long as neither tries to convert the other.

The six lines

  1. First line. Someone drifts away or something is lost; let it go, because it will return on its own. Treat even those who seem hostile to you with courtesy.
  2. Second line. By chance, in an unexpected place, you run into someone you couldn’t officially deal with. That informal meeting is valid and useful.
  3. Third line. Everything seems to be against you: obstacles, humiliation, setbacks. The beginning is bad, but if you stay faithful to what is right, the end will be good.
  4. Fourth line. You feel alone in the midst of the disagreement and find a kindred spirit. Trusting that person sincerely pulls you out of isolation.
  5. Fifth line. Regret fades. An ally breaks through the barriers and comes close to you; go to meet them without distrust.
  6. Sixth line. Loneliness makes you see enemies where there are friends, and you’re about to attack. When you lower your weapon you discover they came in peace, and the tension melts away like after the rain.

The archetype: The Rivals

The Rivals are two people bound by something, a love, an inheritance, a trade or a childhood, who have set off in opposite directions. Each sees in the other a reflection of what they fear or despise in themselves. Their desire, often unspoken, is to be understood by precisely the one who contradicts them. Their conflict feeds on misunderstandings: a word taken the wrong way, a letter that never arrives, a suspicion that grows in solitude. The more they isolate themselves, the more enemies they see in every gesture. Their risk is that distrust leads them to attack just when the other was coming to make peace. The way out lies in small, almost chance encounters that reopen contact without demanding a full reconciliation.

In literature

  • Kokoro (Natsume Sōseki, 1914). In his testament, Sensei tells how he brought his friend K, an austere student, to lodge at a widow’s house, and how K confided his love for the widow’s daughter. Sensei hides what he feels, throws K’s own words about those who don’t strive to better themselves back at him and secretly asks for the girl’s hand. K takes his own life without a word of reproach in his letter, and Sensei lives for decades imprisoned by that silence between them.
  • Fortunata and Jacinta (Benito Pérez Galdós, 1887). Fortunata, a woman of the people, and Jacinta, the barren middle-class wife, are bound together and set against each other by their love for Juanito Santa Cruz. Each sees in the other what she lacks: one has the child, the other the name and the home. For years they eye each other with jealousy and distrust in a Madrid that keeps them apart. Before she dies, Fortunata gives her son to Jacinta, a gesture that brings them closer without erasing their differences.
  • Abel Sánchez (Miguel de Unamuno, 1917). Joaquín Monegro and Abel Sánchez have been friends since childhood, but Joaquín is consumed by envy: Abel has charm and success, and he marries Helena, whom Joaquín loved. The rivalry lasts a lifetime and reaches into the next generation. It reads as an antagonism that feeds on itself from within and turns difference into a wall that small agreements can barely get through.

In history

The Christmas Truce (1914). On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914, at various points along the Western Front, British and German soldiers climbed out of their trenches, sang carols, swapped tobacco and buried their dead together. Their commanders had not authorized it, and it never happened again on that scale. The episode embodies the hexagram: in the midst of opposition, an informal meeting in no man’s land showed that understanding was still possible in small things.

For writers

Perfect for a couple or alliance that breaks apart over a misunderstanding. The powerful scene comes when one of them, blinded by suspicion, is about to attack the person who came to make peace.

Opposition shapes stories of estrangement and reunion. In the setup, two characters who ought to understand each other, such as siblings, business partners or lovers, drift apart because of a misunderstanding or a difference in temperament that neither can name. The first key moment is a chance meeting in an unexpected place, where they can talk without the weight of their official roles; there the possibility of a small agreement appears. The turning point comes when suspicion, fed by solitude, leads one of them to prepare an attack on the other just as the other was coming in peace. The resolution depends on whether they lower their weapon in time. The mistake to avoid is resolving the opposition with a sudden, total reconciliation: what rings true is that both draw closer while keeping their differences.

Frequently asked questions

What does hexagram 38 of the I Ching mean?

Hexagram 38, K'uei (Opposition), describes a moment when positions drift apart and each side pulls in a different direction, sometimes because of a simple misunderstanding. It advises against great shared undertakings and considers small matters favorable. It suggests keeping your identity, treating even those who are hostile with courtesy and looking for modest agreements.

What does hexagram 38 mean in love?

In love it signals distance: two people who misunderstand each other, who read every gesture as a reproach or who want different things. It advises leaving the deeper discussions for later and starting with small steps toward each other. The last line warns of the danger of seeing hostility where there is none: often the other person is coming to make peace.

Is hexagram 38 favorable?

It is favorable within limits. The traditional judgment promises good fortune in small matters and advises against large joint projects. Its lines are fairly hopeful: allies drawing near, useful chance encounters and an ending in which the tension dissolves as if after rain. Everything depends on responding to hostility with calm and courtesy.

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Published on October 4, 2026 · updated on October 18, 2026.