The melons of 44.5

[heylise]

About 10 years ago I wanted to cooperate with an artist to make Yijing stories. He had a great insight in the workings of the soul. I asked Yi about it and got 44. Not once, but many times during the two years that we worked on it together. I have had about every line in it, and also without any moving line. All together at least 10 times. Always about this same subject. He was not easy to work with, sometimes I despaired and thought it had been a very bad idea.

Hexagram stories

From that came a big website. Because of those stories he started to accept the existence of computers, and even of internet.
Anton heyboer

In the last years of his life, I could show him on that website what he had accomplished during a lifetime of making innumerable works of art. He was too tired to work anymore, but I could show him what he had created, and make him proud again every day.

Two years ago he died, but I am grateful that I could make his days so much better at the end of his life. Like an old man who sees his offspring and through that he can accept that he cannot do it all himself anymore.

So nobody can tell me that 44 is a 'bad' hexagram. Besides, I think not one hexagram is 'bad'. Or 'good' for that matter. It depends what we do with it, how we respond. When someone warns you for a storm, you will not call the warning 'bad'. You're happy that you have been warned, so you can make things turn out well.

LiSe

 

[lienshan]

So nobody can tell me that 44 is a 'bad' hexagram. Besides, I think not one hexagram is 'bad'. Or 'good' for that matter. It depends what we do with it, how we respond. When someone warns you for a storm, you will not call the warning 'bad'. You're happy that you have been warned, so you can make things turn out well.

Agree and think that hexagram 19 Lin might be a good example:

Approach has supreme success. Perseverance furthers.
When the eighth month comes, there will be misfortune.

When the eighth month comes, the 18th day is in fact the best date for tide-watching. But each year, many people die from tide watching, since most of them go beyond the designated tide watching areas. They were not quite aware of the power of the tidal waves, and some came to the riverside to get a better view of the tide, some even jumped into the river to swim. Sometimes, the tidal waves appear to be far away from people, but the waves could suddenly surge, and there would no time for them to escape. Standing on the part stretching deep into the river of a T-shaped dam will be especially tricky. Though the tide appears to still be far away, the waves from the two sides already steal their way and cut off the retreating route. People could only wait there desperately till they are carried away by the rising waves.

http://english.people.com.cn/200610/10/eng20061010_310430.html

 

[charly]

... while the preacher preaches the good news to all men from the pulpit, women are brutalized on television for sake of entertainment. It's ain't natural, Charly...

...Well, people know about earth wisdom, but I don't think many consider it as wisdom. Like the archaeologist I listened to the other night, explaining how termites have no intelligence, though they build 6 foot high housing units, complete with natural air conditioning, along with everything they need to survive as a species...

...The reason they possess no intelligence, he said, is because they don't think about the design before they build it, they just build it. But what the termite does sounds like earth wisdom to me...

Bruce:

I totally agree with you!

About the ants, sounds like prejudice. Does somebody know what ants may think? Maybe if we enlarge the reasoning, also human beings have no intelligence, futhermore if we look at wars, pollution...

I wonder if ANTS are not symbols of HUMAN BEINGS, good workers, constant warriors, eficacious weather predictors, clearly making his own path on the earth, and also prisoners of his own conditions (CAPTIVES).

Remember A. Waley:

The modern chinese peasant of course has his ant-proverbs. The usual chinese word for the ant... does not occur in the Changes. About twenty times, however, we find the character 孚 [fu], which is said to mean 'sincere' ...
A possible semantic history...
(1) the creature which carries its young (i.e.eggs) in its claws...
(2) true, reliable (because of the reliable character of the ant's weather prophecies);
(3) a guarantee of reliability...
(4) any captive of war;
(5) the moral meaning 'sincere' is a derivative of (2).
From: A.Waley: The Book of Changes at Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. Can be dowloaded from Biroco.

Maybe the ant was censored from I Ching because too similar with the (Earth-Captive) Human Being?

Yours,


Charly

 

[charly]

...
Not sure were you get the meaning for "dog" but is not in any of my dictionaries. Let me know where to look for that meaning.
... It is my belief... that the lack of parsing in classical Chinese is a purposeful event meant to give the reader the opportunity to interpret a reading circumstantially and contextually...

Luis:

It is not a meaning for GOU4, but the character that appears in the Mawangdui manuscript:

狗 instead of 姤

I think that it depicts that:

1) the two words did sound similar
2) DOG meaning makes some sense
3) replacement may indicate a censored key word or that the sound is the key....

狗: at the left animal <> 姤: at the left woman
狗: at the right somebody leaning over a mouth (or pregnancy) <> 姤: at the right also somebody leaning over a mouth (or giving birth)

The meaning could be about inclinations, tendencies?
The sound could be: barking like a dog? howling like a wolf?
Also could be moaning like ________________? wailing like _______________? (to be filled)

And of course, to have the chance for interpreting a reading circumstantially and contextually is indispensable.

I think, by example, that Cleary versions fails for devination uses because its too clear meanings instead of its accuracy.

Un abrazo,


Carlos

----------------------------------------------
H.44 classic version and MWD at: http://www.harvard-yenching.net/ruxue/zhuzuo/zhouyi/zhouyi44.html

 

[Sparhawk]

Luis:

It is not a meaning for GOU4, but the character that appears in the Mawangdui manuscript:

狗 instead of 姤

Ah! Gracias for the clarification. I wasn't thinking of the Mawangdui text. IMO, I think that in the case of the Mawangdui, that, and other subtle textual differences, could be transcription errors based on phonetic/oral transmissions. On the other hand, they must also be considered at face value.

Un abrazo,

 

[charly]

About 10 years ago I wanted to cooperate with an artist to make Yijing stories. He had a great insight in the workings of the soul. I asked Yi about it and got 44. Not once, but many times during the two years that we worked on it together...

So nobody can tell me that 44 is a 'bad' hexagram. Besides, I think not one hexagram is 'bad'. Or 'good' for that matter....

LiSe:

If people makes a dessire when a star is falling from the sky (as the melon, a portent almost ever seen as a good omen) it will be fulfilled.

Instead of some striking images I ever think that H.44 is not a bad hexagram. Furthermore, it is a good one.

After reading your post I believe it's mainly about love. Human love. Love can be lucky or not, can be easy or can be hard, but never is sad and ever is good.

You have the gift of making good whatever hexagram.

Yours,


Charly

 

[charly]

Every bad hexagram has a favorable line usually and vice versa. 44:5 is the good line in this hexagram...

Mary:

I have read most times about bad hexagrams, but I almost ever find one or more lucky lines, not only by the interpretation that I made, but for the own line text ending of lucky, ominous, no wrong...

Which are for you the worst hexagrams?

Speaking of GOU, I believe that is, among other meanings, about biological female power and / or about hidden female powers. Powers mainly passed from generation to generation by means of female hands (1).

Women are natural shamans.

your,


Charly

----------------------------------------------
(1) Remember «Bewitched»

 

[midaughter]

I wish it were so, Charly. Never, never underestimate this hexagram and the danger that actually you are moving towards. The hexagram looks to me, although I have no proof (not having seen it mentioned in Mawandui or the Guicang) The hexagram seems to be a function of yin-yang theory so popular in the Han Dynasty. The idea that 5 men approach one woman of dubious character and this is so terrible, imo should be entirely re-written.

I am grateful to Ni for the interpretation of line 5 as the person moving towards the danger has but one chance to avoid it. I never have managed to avoid it and finally after founding 'the whipped dog school' of I Ching interpretation, finally gave in and admitted this is an unfavorable even dangerous hexagram . If the Yi represents the 10,000 things, danger must be there somewhere and here it is.

 

[midaughter]

Whoops, I should look up 44 in Shaunnesy's Mawangdui I Ching:

doesn't make much sense: Shaunessy has been criticized for some of his noun choices.

Gou Dirt (Dog) Meeting: The maiden matures; do not herewith take a maiden

44:1
Tied to a metal ladder
determination is auspicious
if you have someplace to go
you will see inauspiciousness, the emaciated piglet returns helter-skelter


44:5 With jealousy* wrap the gourd**
It contains a pattern
something*** drops from heaven

*the received text reads 'willow tree'
**reads to enfold, enwrap
***received text reads 'to fall'

notes: the character fu seems to be used in many contexts such as 'capturing sincerity 44:5 drumstick instead of enfolding in the received text. There is mention of a female not in the only yin line, above but in the description of the hexagram. I am not sure if Shaunessy means this line to be the image. PS he needs an editor, this is worst put together I Ching I have ever seen. I first used it in 1998.

 

[midaughter]

Lise wrote:
About 10 years ago I wanted to cooperate with an artist to make Yijing stories. He had a great insight in the workings of the soul. I asked Yi about it and got 44. Not once, but many times during the two years that we worked on it together.

in my experience, 44 is a hexagram that will intervene in a reading, not answering the question but showing danger ahead. for example, if you worked in the World Trade Center hit by the terrorists on 9/11 and you asked a question about anything on 9/10 you probably would have gotten hexagram 44 because the influence of danger is so strong.

Charly the other not-so-good (and I am speaking of ordinary experience) is 23, sometimes 28, 36 especially the higher lines.

 

[midaughter]

I am not bothered about disagrrement. I ask that you keep my own experience in mind. BTW, this hexagram repeats and repeats itself until the danger arrives. I know this puts the idea of consulting the Yi in a more dangerous light - you may be informed
of something unpleasant of scary. 44 is not always too bad, it could mean something unfavorable like being fired. Its the flow of energy that's important to remember: the 5 yang lines go towards the one yin line which is unusual; the closer the line to the bottom yin, the closer the event it that it is speaking of.
I do note that knowing the hexagrams is only half the job, a diviner should know how to avoid danger and death and other unfavorable happenings and do this by divination. That's the harder part of learning the YI.
I only ask that you keep my own experience in mind as I have dramatically avoided death twice now. I know this is unpleasant and threatening but think about it, the Yi is reading your energy field, if a stronger energy intervenes then why should it not tell you? Doesn't this make sense?
It also helps when you are not getting hexagram 44, no need to divine about that trip, that person, and any other potential dangers ahead.

 

[lightofreason]

for example, if you worked in the World Trade Center hit by the terrorists on 9/11 and you asked a question about anything on 9/10 you probably would have gotten hexagram 44 because the influence of danger is so strong.

so lets get this right - if anyone in the towers accessed the I Ching on the night before they would have got 44? LOL! what a con-artist/charletan you can be at times! To come up with such drival emphasises the concern you have in generalising your personal experience with the hexagram and that done probably through coin tossing or some other magical/random method but in no way is that generalisable into what you have come up with above.

EVERY hexagram is associatable with safety and life as it is with danger and death. Hex 44 shares space with 28 and so covers excesses both good and bad (since the universal forms of the hexagrams dont recognise good/bad).

The infrastructure of 44 is described by analogy to the generic characteristics of 43, as is the infrastructure of 28 described by analogy to the generic characteristics of 01.

The full spectrum of 44 is covered in the line positions section of:

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/lofting/x111110.html

...where we get the whole of the IC to describe the general nature of 44 - no 'good' or 'bad' bias other than that set by LOCAL context, and that covers YOUR personal experiences.

IMHO you have spent too much time emersed in 10th century BC thinking. Time to retire midaughter or move into the 21st century AD.

Chris.

 

[Trojina]

LOL its weird I have thrown 44 countless times in my life and I'm still alive !!

 

[Sparhawk]

LOL its weird I have thrown 44 countless times in my life and I'm still alive !!

Me too, and every single time I would fall for the wrong woman, regardless of warnings... It goes to show the discerning power of ME(N)

 

[bruce_g]

I once received 51 regarding the coming events of the evening. Only an hour or so later, my motor vehicle slid in the freshly fallen snow across a highway on-ramp, and crashed into the back of another vehicle.

So let this be a lesson to y'all the next time you get 51: Wear your seat belts, even if you're watching TV from your easy chair.

 

[hilary]

, Bruce.

Another 44.5 for the mix: after flailing about for ages trying to find the software to do something, someone actually gives me the current version of his. A completely unexpected gift from heaven.

He was just developing his version 2. Since version 1 didn't quite do the job, I bought the upgrade at a generous discount. He and I corresponded for some time. Version 2 didn't do what I needed, either, and in the end I got a refund.

Or another one - remember Anita? (She of the profile photo?) She had this line about the boyfriend, specifically about contact with him on her birthday. In the event he couldn't email her because of technical problems, but when she phoned him he said lots of wonderful things to her about his undying love for her inner beauty. (And years later they agreed that this relationship wasn't going to work out.)

Not that I think those beautiful melons, or pumpkin come to that, are necessarily going to go wrong. I think this is 44's unknown and unpredictable arrival still in the 'Vessel', still developing and incubating. Will it be a perfect fit in the end? Who knows! It's a beautiful gift.

It's certainly possible, and important, to use experience to deepen understanding of lines. My 'hexagram notes' document is full of my own experiences and umpteen stories from here. I think the process starts with a very nuanced understanding of the experiences, and continues with generalisation as you try to discover what all these things have in common.

 

[charly]

I wish it were so, Charly.

Mary:
I wish too.

Never, never underestimate this hexagram and the danger that actually you are moving towards..

Of course, but if H.44 warnings you about danger, it is not so bad. You can (or cann't) take advantage.

...The idea that 5 men approach one woman of dubious character ...

Five men, one woman, Why? (1). Yin is not equal to woman, yang is not equal to man. Moreover, is there any evidence of the woman's dubiuous character?

... danger must be there somewhere and here it is.

Sure, too much striking characters in the whole scene. Each one mysterious and worrying, Hidden-Dog (1) or Powerful-Girl, here the casting:

Wow-Girl-Strenght (Gou Nu-Zhuang) 姤女壯
Captive-Lean-Pig aka Pale-Pig (Lei Shi-Fu) 羸豕孚
In-Basket-Fish (Bao You-Yu) 包有魚
Skinless-Bottom (Tun Wu-Fu) 臀无膚
No-Rising-Fish (Wu Yu-Qi) 无魚起
Melon-Wrapping-Willow (Qi Bao-Gua) 杞包瓜
Horned-Dog (2) aka Lady's Horn (3) (Gou Qi-Jiao) 姤其角

Associations are ominous, suggesting of crime underworld, surely a dangerous gang.

Say the Pig: Stevenson tells that Polynesian Cannibals called «long pig» the human flesh for eating. Maybe Lean-Pig is only Human-Flesh? Lean-Pig can be captive but also can be out of control: dangerous, of course. Perhaps the same actor than Horned-Dog?

With all these guys, decent people are under fire. Very dangerous. Because of this, may be, confucians have revolved all the hexagram, have mixed all the meanings. But I'm sure, the girl is no bad!.

It's only a joke, I'm aware.

Yours,

Charly

----------------------------------------------------
(1) Luis, are you here? This remainds me that talking about a fat girl often is said «mucha carne para un solo perro!» («most flesh for only one dog!»)
(2) In my country slang dog is a non-legal fire weapon. Most old guns are horn handled.
(3) Lady's horn is not my idea, is from Wu Jing-Nuan (?)

 

[midaughter]

I think part of the problem with this hexagram is that historically (although one cannot generalize for every dynasty or even every fortune teller) is that inauspicious readings were discarded.

The difficulty with the hexagram is that it may not represent a life and death situation but something just bad (bad in the sense of ordinary human experience), like losing one's job or an unfavorable outcome to a court case and such but its also very difficult to relate the divination to the event as the danger or problem may be months away and you have not related this reading to the problem when it appears, the only giveaway here is that the hexagram REPEATS itself, the worse the problem, the more repetition of the hexagram.

I only ask that you keep my experience in mind and give it a fair shake

 

[lightofreason]

I think part of the problem with this hexagram is that historically (although one cannot generalize for every dynasty or even every fortune teller) is that inauspicious readings were discarded.

perhaps you dont like it since it reflect properties of you? The drive to persuade/seduce, to 'manage' others etc Is that a side of you you dont like, you want 'killed' and so it touches a nerve? - the killing reflects your thought that 'inauspicious readings where discarded' - and so a sense of paranoia about the hexagram overall?

The competitive nature of heaven in upper (singlemindedness) covers a focus on context replacement rather than coexisting with the present. The wind bottom brings out the cultivation focus (with/from cultivation comes singlemindedness) and so a sharing of context - as such 44 is the most 'context replacement' natured of the yin based hexagrams (that are all context coexistence focused) - in yin in general you cannot 'kill', you can neutralise but here the neutralisation is extreme where you 'kill' by getting them to come across to your way of thinking - they continue to exist somatically but have died psychically by surrendering to the seduction.

Cultivation doubled brings out the wind becoming influencial and so a focus on being influencial - and so the sense of singlemindedness in being cultivating through persuation/seduction, where the hexagram covers the attraction to the 'dark side'.

The conditional focus in 44 stems from the unconditional focus in 28 and so brings out a competitive edge in 44, it is not 'cooperative' it is competive but in the form of the individual doing the persuading/seducing is doing it to refine the skill of persuading/seducing - once the act is done we move on since there is no more interest... we complete the seduction and then call out 'NEXT!...'

Chris.

 

[midaughter]

----------------------------------------------------
(1) Luis, are you here? This remainds me that talking about a fat girl often is said «mucha carne para un solo perro!» («most flesh for only one dog!»)
(2) In my country slang dog is a non-legal fire weapon. Most old guns are horn handled.

I think (1) would translate as 'so much flesh and only one dog' or 'so much flesh and only one dog to eat it' or 'so much flesh and only one dog to enjoy it'
(2) In my country 'dog' means a really ugly woman but among African-Americans it means a man of bad character.

 

[Sparhawk]

(1) Luis, are you here? This remainds me that talking about a fat girl often is said «mucha carne para un solo perro!» («most flesh for only one dog!»)
(2) In my country slang dog is a non-legal fire weapon. Most old guns are horn handled.
(3) Lady's horn is not my idea, is from Wu Jing-Nuan (?)

Yes, I'm here... Not much to talk about while the cyclical pruning of Chris' ideas and theories is under way... Used to joke quite a bit about it but I'm running out of punch lines...

 

[heylise]

About good and bad hexagrams

Middaughter: this hexagram repeats and repeats itself until the danger arrives.

Chris: EVERY hexagram is associatable with safety and life as it is with danger and death.

I agree with Chris, in my view hexagrams are beyond good and bad. If you search for both the good and bad in them, you will find both, but if you are determined on one of the two, you will find that one.
I happened to read a text by Campbell, who says exactly what I mean.

Campbell in conversation with Michael Toms. "An open life", page 51 (ISBN 0-06-097295-5)

Campbell: When you get down into the depths of mythology, forms are beyond good and evil. With the Indian deities—this is the wonderful thing about them—the upper right hand will say, "Fear not" and below it is the boon-bestowing hand; and the upper left will have a sword, and in the lower a recently amputated head. These are the two aspects of power, the two aspects of being. In our traditions—and this is true even all the way back to the Greeks—the beneficent and the malfeasant aspects of power tend to be separated and contrary entities.

Michael Toms: Is that when trouble arises?

Campbell: No, not necessarily—provided the two are in play with each other. But when one is impugned, as in our tradition where the powers of the deep are consigned to Hell . . . It's interesting that the symbols of Shiva and of Poseidon are exactly those that are given to the Devil in Christian mythology—the bull's foot and the tridents. So the power which is symbolized in those forms has been pushed aside as though it should not be admitted.

So here in the West, we easily tend to turn some hexagrams into "good" and make others to devils.

LiSe

 

[martin]

I believe it's like in astrology where 'good' and 'bad' (or 'benefic' and 'malefic') are words that hardly any astrologer will use nowadays. But some configurations are still considered to be 'easier' than others.

If you have, say, a Mars-Uranus conjunction square your ascendant then that is (if there are no factors that compensate for it) comparable to walking around with explosives in your pocket all the time. Not so easy.
Of course the upside is that you have a lot of power at your finger tips. So, no, it's not 'bad'.

In the I Ching, hexagram 40 is not 'good' and hexagram 3 is not 'bad'. But I find hex 40 the easier of the two.
It's also personal, I think. A hexagram might be easy for me and less easy for you or the other way around. It depends on type, history, on what you are good at or not so good, and so on. Hexagram 3 situations require a lot of patience, in my experience, and I'm not all that good at being patient.

 

[charly]

(1) would translate as ... 'so much flesh and only one dog to enjoy it'
(2) ... among African-Americans it means a man of bad character.

Mary:
You get the sense.
By consequence of (1) and (2):
dog = the guy who enjoy flesh
dog = man of bad character
But why should have bad character a guy who enjoy flesh?
Because flesh is never enough for dogs.

Yours,

Charly

 

[midaughter]

Aren't we just balled up in semantics. I mean death has its positive aspects, such as the end of suffering. As W.C. Fields would say of death, "On the whole I would rather be in Philadelphia." Is it too simplistic to label hexagrams good and bad? Maybe a bit but remember we deal with ordinary human experience and some hexagrams lend themselves to being labeled good, say, 42 or 40 and bad, 44 and 23; while some are more neutral, say 34 and 26. And of course, in I Ching terms its always good to know if something lurks out there. Had I not known of impending doom ('bad')
I would not have known to disregard the diagnosis that nothing was wrong with me ('good') and being thrown out of the hospital over my objections (neutral?), called an ambulance, and the paramedics found a zero blood pressure (is this neither good nor bad, no, its baD), ending up in intensive care for a month (good? bad?) On the whole I would say of the entire experience that I glad the Yi tipped me off or I would not have lived. But is the whole experience neither good nor bad? Well, I lived to tell the tale of 44 because for 6 months I hardly received any other hexagram unless it was 44 or 23. Was this good? No, I would say it was bad, it felt bad and it was scary and this was the second time I had received hexagram 44 and knew what it meant. and yes, I got the hexagram for many months. This was also scary but I knew what was going on and took the steps to live. Good? yes, but on the whole I would have rather been in Philadelphia.

 

[charly]

...Maybe a bit but remember we deal with ordinary human experience and some hexagrams lend themselves to being labeled good, say, 42 or 40 and bad, 44 and 23; while some are more neutral... I would not have known to disregard the diagnosis that nothing was wrong with me ... ending up in intensive care for a month... This was also scary but I knew what was going on and took the steps to live. Good? yes, but on the whole I would have rather been in Philadelphia.

Mary:

You have had a bad experience with H.44. I understand you. For other people H.44 can be good, not for you.

I went to Jou Tsung-Hwa and found at 44.1 that divinatory issue:

"Better get a check-up" your wife say when you report a minor pain. "It's nothing" you think, and forget about it. Three months later you suddenly turn white, fall on the floor and begin writhing in pain.

We can made some deductions:

1) Better get a check-up for whatever pain you have.
2) If you have a partner, better listen to him or her.
3) H.44 is bad, or H.44.1 is bad.
4) If you get H.44 better throw the coins another time.
...
But all the above can fail.

Come we back to Jou (for the same 44.1):

Your remmarks are not appealing to the other side. The better way is to change them.

What a guy this Jou!
But, what is saying 44.1?

Taking out minor details (retaining only four characters), 44.1 says:

... to divinate is lucky ... to observe, unlucky...
(I have not the chinese at hand, I promise to post assap)

Better to foresee than to treat. Experience ever arrive later.

If the dog of H.44 still remorses you or is still scaring you , better give him a bone.

(to be continued)

Yours,

Charly

 

[hilary]

You have had a bad experience with H.44. I understand you. For other people H.44 can be good, not for you.

And that sums it up perfectly. These were Mary's readings, meeting Mary's intuitive understanding. It doesn't follow that everyone who receives Hexagram 44 is in mortal peril.

I think we can safely say that 44 indicates the arrival of something powerful, unknowable, uncontrollable, unpredictable, and which may turn our regular way of life upside-down. (Sorry for the horribly watered-down version.) And that 23 indicates something is being taken from us, and all we can do is undergo the process. (And again.)

As to whether these are bad or good, that depends on how attached we were to the regular way of life, or to whatever is taken away. By and large, for most ordinary people, 23 will most likely be a horrible experience. But the Image shows it doesn't have to be horrible or violent...

 

[maremaria]

I agree with Chris, in my view hexagrams are beyond good and bad. If you search for both the good and bad in them, you will find both, but if you are determined on one of the two, you will find that one.
LiSe

… and this is migth be the threat of consulting IC isn’t it ?
When one just “use” the Yi to “prove one’s case”. And when things turns wrong one wonders if the Yi is a liar ?
Maria

 

[bruce_g]

And that 23 indicates something is being taken from us, and all we can do is undergo the process. (And again.)

As to whether these are bad or good, that depends on how attached we were to the regular way of life, or to whatever is taken away. By and large, for most ordinary people, 23 will most likely be a horrible experience. But the Image shows it doesn't have to be horrible or violent...

I roll my eyes at 23 and say, here we go again. But to me, it is a treasure hunt, ultimately. So, first bad, then good.

 

[bradford]

May be GOU means...

1) Princess or Ancestral Lady,
2) Dog (male dog, I think),
3) Meeting,
4) Copulating ...

Regarding the word Gou, there's a character Gou that refers to
"dog" that is the title of this hexagram in the Mawangdui ms.
But it refers to a bitch, and the word has the same derogatory
meaning here as it does in the west. The woman here
is to be avoided as an untimely distraction. But there are
plenty of other places in the Yi where the woman is to be
embraced, empowered or celebrated.