The lake gathering above the earth: waters converging, people assembling. Cuì is gathering together — the massing of family, followers, resources, and feeling around a center strong enough to hold them.
Its requirements: a genuine center (the temple, the great person), sincerity that makes even small offerings sufficient, and — the Image's sober note — weapons kept in repair, since where much gathers, the unforeseen gathers too. Great collections of anything demand great readiness.
問Cuì favors union and the gathering of lives: families joining, commitments formalized, the beloved circle drawn close. Its emotional honesty is touching — the sighs of one reaching for a closed circle, the tears of one misunderstood at the edge — and its counsel constant: sincerity opens the gathering; a single honest cry, and hands clasp with laughter.
Professionally, Cuì is the hexagram of assembling: the team recruited, capital raised, coalition formed. Its checklist: gather around a worthy center rather than mere momentum; where position outruns trust, let sublime persistence win the doubters; and prepare for what accumulation attracts — success gathers imitators, disputes, and the unforeseen. Renew the weapons before they are needed.
Inwardly, Cuì asks what your life is gathering around — and whether the accumulation serves a center or merely grows. Scattered energies collect the way waters do, by finding the low, honest point they can agree on. Locate yours, offer it sincerity rather than spectacle, and the gathering orders itself.
A line speaks only when it is a changing line in your own casting.