The lines of hexagram 16

  Line 1. 'Expressing' or 'singing about': the character is a bird with mouth, a singing bird. Same character is used in hex.15.2
  Line 2. 'Situated' is chain-mail.
  Line 4. 'Partners are united like a hair clasp does'. Another translation is: Why not string the cowries? But look at this saying: 簪蒿席草(以蒿作簪,以草为席。形容生活艰苦) use Artemisia as a hairpin and grass as a mat. Describes utter poverty.
  Makes it very easy to see here the opposite: get cowrie hairpin: get very rich. The meaning 'partners' is younger than cowrie string, and maybe also younger than the Yijing.

More about hexagrams 15 and 16
Back to hex.16
Back to the story of hex.16