Hexagram 43 (夬, Guài) is one of the 64 classical I Ching hexagrams. Wilhelm’s English translation renders the hexagram’s name as “Breakthrough (Resoluteness)”. This page describes how classical commentary reads this hexagram when received in answer to a relationships question.
“Breakthrough. One must resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king. It must be announced truthfully. Danger. One must notify one's own city. It does not further to resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something.”
— classical judgment text
“The lake has risen up to heaven: the image of Breakthrough. Thus the noble person dispenses riches downward and refrains from resting on their virtue.”
— classical image text
The hexagram’s general theme
Five yang lines pushing up against the last yin at the top. Decisive removal of an inferior — but openly, in the king's court, never by force.
Classical keywords: breakthrough, resolute action, removing the corrupt, open declaration, no force.
夬 Guài read for relationships questions
Classical I Ching commentary reads relationship questions through the hexagram’s register of meeting, balance, and the energetic exchange between two parties. The hexagram describes the field of forces around the relationship question; classical doctrine reads whether the moment favours commitment, conversation, distance, or transformation.
The hexagram’s register does not have explicit relationships-domain resonances in its modern interpretive keys, but applies to relationships questions through its general theme described above.
Classical guidance for the hexagram: Announce the matter openly. Don't take up arms; truth is the weapon. Distribute wealth downward; do not rest on virtue.
Read against a relationships question, this guidance describes the field of forces around the hexagram’s register of meeting, balance, and the energetic exchange between two parties. the hexagram describes the field of forces around the relationship question; classical doctrine reads whether the moment favours commitment, conversation, distance, or transformation.. The action the guidance suggests — or warns against — applies to the relationships question being asked, with the chart-specific qualifications that consultation provides.
Configuration
- Hexagram: #43 夬 (Guài), “Breakthrough (Resoluteness)”
- Question type: Relationships (感情)
- Question domain: Romantic partnership, marriage, family, intimate friendship, the dynamics between two people
- Upper trigram: dui · Lower trigram: qian
- Hexagram lines (top to bottom):
011111(1 = yang / solid, 0 = yin / broken)
Why a generic hexagram-for-relationships interpretation falls short
This page describes what classical commentary reads when Hexagram 43 is received for a relationships question — the hexagram’s general register applied to the relationships domain. But a complete I Ching reading for a specific question requires the casting method (yarrow vs three-coin), identification of changing lines, the resulting secondary hexagram, and integration with the querent’s specific BaZi chart. Without those, the reading is reference-level — the broad register, not the chart-specific application. For chart-aware relationship reading, book a BaZi consultation. The four-pillar chart of both parties layered with the I Ching reading produces compatibility-aware diagnostic depth that the I Ching reading alone cannot.