Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Guai · 夬
The Judgment
The matter must be resolutely made known at the king's court. Truthfully announced. Danger. Notify your own city. Do not resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something. A single passion lurking in the heart can obscure reason. Fight without quarter is necessary. But there are rules: resolution must combine strength with friendliness. Evil must be openly discredited. Don't gloss over your own shortcomings. Don't fight directly by force—you'll get entangled in hatred. Begin at home. Combat your own faults by making energetic progress in the good.
The Image
The lake has risen to heaven—reason to fear a cloudburst. Dispense riches downward. Don't rest on your virtue. All gathering is followed by dispersion. Begin to distribute while accumulating. In character, don't become hardened in obstinacy—remain receptive through continuous self-examination.
「澤上於天，夬。」湖水升到天上，暴雨將至。聚集之後必有散落，所以要在積累的時候就開始分發。性格上也一樣，不要固執到僵化，要保持接受能力。這需要不斷的自我檢視，我也做不太好。
The Six Lines
Mighty in the forward-striding toes. If you go and are not equal to the task, you make a mistake. At the beginning of resolute advance, resistance is still strong. Gauge your strength. Venture only so far as you can go with certainty. Plunging blindly ahead brings unexpected setbacks with disastrous results.
A cry of alarm. Arms at evening and at night. Fear nothing. Readiness is everything. Resolution is bound up with caution. Watchful at all times, even before danger is present—you're armed when it approaches. Circumspect, never forgetting your armor: this is the right way to security.
Powerful in the cheekbones. Misfortune. You have a certain relationship with an inferior person while others fight against all that is inferior. If you show strength outwardly before the time is ripe, you endanger everything. Maintain the association, avoid participation in vileness. You'll be misjudged, lonely, sullied in others' eyes. But remain true to yourself—this is without mistake.
No skin on his thighs, walking comes hard. If led like a sheep, remorse disappears. But these words will not be believed. Inner restlessness, obstinacy in enforcing your will against insuperable obstacles. If you would desist, everything would go well. But like much good counsel, this will be ignored. Obstinacy makes a person unable to hear.
In dealing with weeds, firm resolution is necessary. Walking in the middle remains free of blame. Weeds grow back. Struggle against an inferior person in high position demands resolution. There is danger of giving up as hopeless. Don't. Continue resolutely; don't be deflected.
No cry. In the end, misfortune comes. Victory seems achieved. Only a remnant of evil remains to be eradicated. Everything looks easy—this is the danger. If not vigilant, evil escapes through concealment. New misfortunes develop from remaining seeds. Evil does not die easily. In your own character too, go to work with thoroughness.
Artwork & Treatise
Liberty Leading People
Delacroix, 1830
Paris, July 1830. Eugène Delacroix paints Liberty as an allegorical woman striding over barricades and bodies, bare-breasted, holding the tricolor flag. She leads armed citizens through gunsmoke—a boy with pistols, a man in top hat with musket, a wounded insurgent at her feet. The July Revolution overthrows King Charles X in three days. Delacroix completes the canvas within months, capturing the moment when popular uprising breaks through royal authority.
{artwork_reasoning}
This is Guài (夬), Breakthrough, called "Resoluteness" in some translations. The hexagram structure shows five yang lines pushing upward against a single yin line at the top—accumulated force achieving decisive rupture. Lake (Duì) sits above Heaven (Qián): joyous expression released by creative power, the dam breaking under pressure. Delacroix's composition surges upward and forward, the crowd's momentum carrying through the picture plane. In Zhou Dynasty court divinations, this configuration appeared when ministers confronted corrupt officials, when floodwaters breached levees, when long-accumulating tension found sudden release. The hexagram addresses not gradual change but the critical moment when restraint gives way.
The Judgment text declares: "Breakthrough. One must resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king. It must be announced truthfully. Danger. It is necessary to notify one's own city. It does not further to resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something." The text acknowledges both the necessity and peril of decisive confrontation. Delacroix shows exactly this—the dangerous moment when citizens take to the streets, when words transform into barricades and musket fire. Yet the painting also captures the Judgment's counsel: Liberty herself carries no weapon, only the flag. The breakthrough comes through will made visible, grievances announced, not through arms alone. The revolution succeeded because Charles X abdicated rather than order massacre; three days of street fighting replaced one monarchy with another.
The Image Text states: "The lake has risen up to heaven: the image of Breakthrough. Thus the superior person dispenses riches downward and refrains from resting on virtue." Water accumulating until it must overflow, pressure finding release. Delacroix's Liberty embodies this principle—she rises from the people, leading them forward while distributing the revolution's promise. In the I-Ching sequence, Guài follows Yì (increase): accumulation reaches the point where it must break through existing forms or collapse under its own pressure. The barricade moment captures this threshold—buildup becoming breakthrough, the stored energy of grievance converting to kinetic force of change.
Yilin Verse
戴堯扶禹，松喬彭祖。西過王母，道里夷易，无敢難者。
Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — Unchanging verse for 夬 (Guài)
Character-by-Character Breakdown
Classical Chinese text with pinyin and English meanings