In love
Shared joy is honored: be enthusiastic together while checking that the celebration leads somewhere for both of you.
Hexagram 16
I Ching hexagram 16: Enthusiasm (Yu)
Yu, Enthusiasm, is the hexagram of joyful impulse: an energy that awakens, carries others along, and calls for measure.
- enthusiasm
- drive
- measure
The essentials
Yu at a glance
For you, Yu describes an impulse that is shared: keep it going, involve others, without letting it go to your head.
A strength
A joy that spreads and sets others in motion, like music that brings a group into harmony.
Something to watch
Getting drunk on the impulse until you lose the thread: the pleasure of the moment replaces neither reflection nor follow-through.
- What it advises
- Put drive at the service of a common project, keep a sense of measure, and do not get drunk on the impulse.
- Its opposite
- 9. The Taming Power of the Small (Xiao xu)
The situation
Yu speaks of enthusiasm and the ease that follows from it. Thunder comes out of the earth: an awakening, a movement that spreads with joy. The ancient text says that in such an atmosphere it is favorable to establish lords and set troops marching, that is, to organize and launch.
The hexagram invites you to use the impulse to carry others along, but it also shows its traps. Boasting of your joy, staying in pleasure instead of acting, losing yourself in it: the lines hold a lesson about lucidity.
The fourth line is the soul of the figure: the drive spreads from it.
The image: Thunder above Earth
- AboveThunder: the shock that awakens
- BelowEarth: the welcome that carries
Thunder coming out of Earth: the awakening makes the ground vibrate. The commentaries recall the ancient sovereigns composing music to celebrate virtue and offer it to their ancestors.
Consult the I Ching
Throw three coins six times: your hexagram, the lines that change, and the direction they point to.
Free, no account · nothing is sent · no predictions
The six lines
- 1st line (bottom) · brokenMaking a show of your joy: the ancient text advises against it. Boasting of a backer loses what you gained from it.
- 2nd line · brokenFirm as a stone, you see the moment before it comes: staying upright leads to good fortune, without waiting for the end of the day.
- 3rd line · brokenLooking up to a superior while seeking pleasure: regret is near. Reacting in time avoids it, delay magnifies it.
- 4th line · solidThe drive comes from this line: great things are possible. Without doubt or mistrust, companions gather around it.
- 5th line · brokenA discomfort that lasts without prevailing: the impulse is slowed, but nothing gives way. The ancient text sees perseverance in it.
- 6th line (top) · brokenClouded by the pleasure of the moment: if you change course even after finishing, the error is avoided.
Yu in your life
At work
Carrying a team along and launching momentum are favored, if you keep an eye on what must follow.
The I Ching helps you reflect on how to act: it does not say what is coming.
How is it built?
- Character
- 豫 (yù)
- Number
- 16 in the King Wen sequence
- Trigrams
- Thunder (震) above, Earth (坤) below
- Inner hexagram
- 39. Obstruction (Jian) (lines 2 to 4 and 3 to 5)
- Read upside down
- 15. Modesty (Qian)
- Symbol
- ䷏ (U+4DCF)
The English names are the usual renderings of the Chinese characters; the texts rely on the Chinese and on early public-domain translations (Legge, 1882; Philastre, 1885–1893).
Sources
- Wikipedia (English), “List of hexagrams of the I Ching,” read on October 15, 2026: numbers, characters, pinyin, lower and upper trigrams.
- Wikipedia (English), “Bagua,” read on October 15, 2026: lines of the eight trigrams, from bottom to top.
- James Legge (1815–1897), The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI, 1882 (Wikisource): public domain.
- Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre (1837–1902), Le Yi King ou Livre des changements de la dynastie des Tsheou, Annales du Musée Guimet, 1885–1893: public domain (the author died more than 70 years ago).
Frequently asked questions about hexagram 16
What does hexagram 16 of the I Ching mean?
Hexagram 16, Yu, means enthusiasm: a joyful impulse that is shared and carries others along, provided you keep a sense of measure.
What does Yu show when read the other way around?
It is hexagram 15, Qian, Modesty. The two answer each other: one stays discreet, the other lets its joy burst out. They are often read side by side.