# Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/54
Last updated: 2026-10-07

```
━━━  ━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
```

- **Upper trigram:** [Zhen 震](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/zhen), Thunder, the arousing, movement
- **Lower trigram:** [Dui 兌](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/dui), Lake, the joyous, open
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 110100 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

The marrying maiden. Entering a position that is not entirely your own ground. Much depends on tact, humility, and the understanding of what your actual role is here. Forcing the situation into one you would prefer invites loss; accepting the real situation with grace invites quiet benefit.

## Image

Thunder above the lake. The superior person understands the transitory in light of the eternal.

## Counsel

Know your place in this particular situation: not forever, but now. Do not overreach; do not also sell yourself short. Behave with dignity, cultivate the patience to let your real contribution show itself over time. Beginnings that respect their context become durable; ones that do not, do not.

## The six lines

*Numbered from the bottom upward. These line texts are read when that line is changing in a cast.*

### Line 1

> A nine at the beginning means:
> The marrying maiden as concubine.
> A lame person who can tread.
> Undertakings bring good fortune.

### Line 2

> A nine in the second place means:
> A one-eyed person who can see.
> Favorable is the perseverance of a solitary person.

### Line 3

> A six in the third place means:
> The marrying maiden as slave.
> She marries as concubine.

### Line 4

> A nine in the fourth place means:
> The marrying maiden delays the term.
> A late marriage comes in its time.

### Line 5

> A six in the fifth place means:
> The sovereign I gives his daughter in marriage.
> Then the embroidered clothes of the princess were not
> as splendid as the clothes of the serving-maid.
> The moon that is almost full brings good fortune.

### Line 6

> A six at the top means:
> The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it.
> The man pierces the sheep, but no blood flows.
> Nothing that would further.

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [63 After Completion](https://thefreeiching.com/library/63)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** [53 Development](https://thefreeiching.com/library/53)
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [53 Development](https://thefreeiching.com/library/53)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [40 Deliverance](https://thefreeiching.com/library/40) |
| Line 2 | [51 The Arousing](https://thefreeiching.com/library/51) |
| Line 3 | [34 Great Power](https://thefreeiching.com/library/34) |
| Line 4 | [19 Approach](https://thefreeiching.com/library/19) |
| Line 5 | [58 The Joyous](https://thefreeiching.com/library/58) |
| Line 6 | [38 Opposition](https://thefreeiching.com/library/38) |

Previous: [53 Development](https://thefreeiching.com/library/53). Next: [55 Abundance](https://thefreeiching.com/library/55). [All sixty-four hexagrams](https://thefreeiching.com/library).

*The judgment, image and counsel are original contemporary paraphrases written for The Free I Ching. The line text is the CC0 translation from [jesshewitt/i-ching](https://github.com/jesshewitt/i-ching), derived from Richard Wilhelm's 1924 German edition.*

## Cite this page

The Free I Ching. "Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden." https://thefreeiching.com/library/54 (updated 2026-10-07).

*The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice. Short quotations with a link back are welcome. Please do not republish a page in full. The open data files at [/data](https://thefreeiching.com/data) are licensed CC BY 4.0.*

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Source: The Free I Ching (https://thefreeiching.com/library/54). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.