I Ching hexagram 44
Hexagram 44: Gou
Sudden Encounter · 天風姤 · Heaven above, Wind below
An unexpected encounter starts small, and the caution is to see where it could lead.
What this hexagram is about
A new person or opportunity turns up unannounced and starts small, and the hexagram cautions you against letting it settle in before you know what it will become. Gou (Sudden Encounter) pictures wind moving beneath the sky, meeting everything it passes.
A way to think about it
Has something new moved into your life faster than you could look at it? Ask what you would still want to know about it before giving it a permanent place.
The text, with Legge's translation
Judgment
女壯，勿用取女。
Kâu shows a female who is bold and strong. It will not be good to marry (such) a female.
A forceful woman appears, and the advice is not to marry her. Tradition reads this more broadly as a caution about taking in a strong newcomer who may grow to overpower the household.
Image
天下有風，姤；后以施命誥四方。
(The trigram representing) wind and that for the sky above it form Kâu. The sovereign, in accordance with this, delivers his charges, and promulgates his announcements throughout the four quarters (of the kingdom).
Line 1 · 初六
系于金柅，貞吉，有攸往，見凶，羸豕，孚，蹢躅。
The first line, divided, shows how its subject should be kept (like a carriage) tied and fastened to a metal drag, in which case with firm correctness there will be good fortune. (But) if he move in any direction, evil will appear. He will be (like) a lean pig, which is sure to keep jumping about.
The first small sign needs a firm metal brake. Held back, it stays manageable, but once it runs loose it brings trouble, like a thin pig that starts leaping about.
Line 2 · 九二
包有魚，无咎，不利賓。
The second line, undivided, shows its subject with a wallet of fish. There will be no error. But it will not be well to let (the subject of the first line) go forward to the guests.
You keep the small new thing, the fish, wrapped up in your own bundle, which contains the matter and leaves no fault. Passing it on to guests does not suit the situation.
Line 3 · 九三
臀无膚，其行次且，厲，无大咎。
The third line, undivided, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped so that he walks with difficulty. The position is perilous, but there will be no great error.
Stuck between going and staying, with no comfortable footing, you are in a tense position. Still, there is no serious fault in it.
Line 4 · 九四
包无魚，起凶。
The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject with his wallet, but no fish in it. This will give rise to evil.
Your bundle holds no fish, because the person who should have come to you went elsewhere. Acting out of that loss leads to trouble.
Line 5 · 九五
以杞包瓜，含章，有隕自天。
The fifth line, undivided, (shows its subject as) a medlar tree overspreading the gourd (beneath it). If he keep his brilliant qualities concealed, (a good issue) will descend (as) from Heaven.
A tall medlar tree shades a melon, the way you keep your own brilliance inside while looking after what is growing beneath you. Something good may drop from heaven.
Line 6 · 上九
姤其角，吝，无咎。
The sixth line, undivided, shows its subject receiving others on his horns. There will be occasion for regret, but there will be no error.
You meet others horn-first from the very top, so few can get close. That brings a touch of embarrassment, though no real fault.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi, public domain. English: James Legge, The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. 16 (1882), public domain. Plain notes written by this site.
Questions
I cast hexagram 44. Which text do I read?
With no changing lines, read the judgment: "Kâu shows a female who is bold and strong. It will not be good to marry (such) a female." With changing lines, read the lines that changed. When several change at once, Zhu Xi's rules decide which text leads, and the casting page marks it for you.
What are the nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams of Gou?
The nuclear hexagram is 1. Qian (Heaven). The opposite is 24. Fu (Return). The inverted hexagram is 43. Guai (Resolution).