above Gen, Keeping Still, mountain · below Sun, the Gentle, wind
This is about something that has gone bad through indifference, inertia or long neglect. What people have spoilt, people can put right, and the Judgement promises that it succeeds. The three days before and after the starting point stand for two tasks: first knowing the causes, and afterwards making sure the new course settles in securely. So ask first how things got this far, then take hold with resolve, and keep an eye on it for a while afterwards. The mistake now would be to shy away from the work; where there was inertia, resolution and energy must take its place.
What in your situation has gone bad, and how did it come to this?
The Chinese character Gu represents a bowl in whose contents worms are breeding. This means what has been spoiled. It has come about because the gentle indifference of the lower trigram has met the rigid inertia of the upper trigram, so that affairs have fallen into stagnation. Since guilt is involved, these conditions carry within them the call to remove them. Hence the meaning of the sign is not simply ‘what has been spoiled’ but ‘what has been spoiled as a task’, ‘work on what has been spoiled’.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Work on what has been spoiled has supreme success.It is favourable to cross the great water.Before the starting point, three days;after the starting point, three days.
What has been spoiled through human fault can be made good again through human work. It is not an unalterable fate, as in the time of Standstill, but the abuse of human freedom that has brought about this state of decay. That is why work on improvement holds out promise: it is in keeping with the possibilities of the time. Only one must not shrink from work and danger (symbolised by crossing the great water), but must take hold energetically. Success, however, depends on proper deliberation. This is expressed in the addition: ‘Before the starting point, three days; after the starting point, three days.’ One must first know the causes that led to the decay before one can do away with them; hence care during the time before the starting point. And then one must see to it that the new course is securely established, so that a relapse is avoided; hence attention to the time after the starting point. In place of the indifference and inertia that led to decay, resolution and energy must step in, so that the end is followed by a new beginning.
Below the mountain the wind blows: the image of decay.So the noble one rouses the people and strengthens their spirit.
When the wind blows low at the foot of the mountain, it is thrown back and spoils the plants. This contains a call to improvement. So it is with base moods and fashions as well: they bring corruption into human society. To remove it, the noble one must renew society. The methods for this are likewise taken from the two trigrams, except that their effects unfold in orderly succession. He must remove stagnation by rousing public opinion (as the wind has a rousing effect) and then strengthen and calm the character of the people (as the mountain gives calm and nourishment to all that grows around it).
Wilhelm placed the signs ○ and □ after certain lines (p. 334 f.). They mark the rulers of the hexagram. □ stands by the constituting ruler: the line that gives the hexagram its meaning, however high it stands and whatever its character. ○ stands by the governing ruler. It is always of good character and becomes ruler through the meaning of the time and its position, usually in the fifth place. Where a line is both, it carries ○.
Putting right what the father has spoiled.If there is a son,no blame remains on the departed father.Danger. In the end good fortune.
Damage has come from clinging rigidly to tradition, though it has yet to take deep root. If you mend it now, you put right what was handed down, and no mistake clings to those who left it behind. Even so, do not take the matter too lightly: every reform carries danger, and only if you know that does it turn out well in the end.
Rigidly holding on to tradition has resulted in decay. But the decay has not yet taken deep root, so it can still be easily mended. It is as if a son were making good the decay that had crept in under his father. Then no blame clings to the father. But one must not overlook the danger or take the matter too lightly. Only if one is aware of the danger bound up with every reform will all go well in the end.
Putting right what the mother has spoiled.One must not be too persevering.
This refers to faults that grew out of weakness; the image of the mother stands for them. Setting them right calls for a certain tender consideration. Go gently and do not press too hard for your own solution, because anyone who corrects harshly hurts others in the process.
This concerns faults that have brought about decay through weakness. Hence the symbol of what the mother has spoiled. In setting this right, a certain tender consideration is needed. One must not try to proceed too harshly, lest one wound by one’s harshness.
Putting right what the father has spoiled.There will be a little remorse. No great blame.
When you tackle old mistakes with determination, you sometimes come down too hard, and then there is minor friction and some ill feeling. That can be lived with. Here too much energy is better than too little; you will have a little to regret, yet no serious mistake comes of it.
Here we see someone who goes about setting right the mistakes of the past a little too energetically. This is sure to give rise now and then to minor frictions and ill feeling. But too much energy is better than too little. So even if at times one has a little to regret, one still remains free of any serious blame.
Tolerating what the father has spoiled.Going on in this way, one meets with humiliation.
Out of weakness, someone lets an old wrong run its course, even though it is already plainly showing. If that carries on, it ends in humiliation. When you notice something that has gone bad, stop looking on and stand up to it while it can still be mended.
This shows the situation of someone who, out of weakness, does not oppose the decay that stems from the past and is now beginning to show itself, but lets it run its course. If this goes on, humiliation will be the result.
Putting right what the father has spoiled.One meets with praise.
Here you face damage left by earlier neglect and lack the strength to repair it on your own. Find capable helpers. With them you can bring about a thorough renewal, even if an entirely fresh start is beyond you, and that deserves recognition.
One is faced with a decay that has arisen through the neglect of earlier times. One lacks the strength to check it alone. But one finds able helpers, and with their support one brings about, if not a creative new beginning, then at least a thorough reform, which is also worthy of praise.
He does not serve kings and princes.He sets himself higher goals.
The picture shows someone who stays out of the quarrels of the powerful and sets himself higher goals. Such a withdrawal is justified if you use the time to work on yourself and on things of lasting value. This line gives no licence for standing idly by or simply criticising.
Not everyone is obliged to take part in the affairs of the world. There are also those who are already so far developed inwardly that they are entitled to let the world go its way without entering political life as reformers. But this does not mean that they may remain idle or merely critical. Only working towards humanity’s higher goals within oneself justifies such withdrawal. For although the sage keeps aloof from the bustle of the day, he nonetheless creates values of incomparable worth for humanity’s future.
In Europe, Goethe’s position after the Napoleonic Wars is an example of this kind of conduct.
Would you like to put your own question to the I Ching? Six throws of three coins, and the answer appears straight away.
Consult the I ChingTexts by Richard Wilhelm: I Ging. Das Buch der Wandlungen (first edition Jena 1924), translated into English by NUMEN COMPASS from the Diederichs edition, Munich 1996. Wilhelm’s German text is in the public domain. The section ‘What the hexagram says today’, the question for you and the short notes under the lines are our own reading. The I Ching is no substitute for medical, legal or psychological advice.