above Kun, the Receptive, earth · below Kun, the Receptive, earth
This sign is about the strength of whoever carries and follows, and if you keep at it calmly, it succeeds. The earth carries everything, the good and the bad alike. The Judgement names the mare because she unites the strength and speed of the horse with the gentleness and devotion of the cow. Someone who lives like this is ‘able to carry and endure people and things’. If a great deal is loaded onto you, stay with it, pace yourself for a long road and read the situation to see what is being asked of you. Don’t push ahead: whoever does that goes astray, whoever follows finds guidance.
What are you carrying now, and where are you rushing ahead instead of reading what the situation asks?
The sign consists of broken lines only. The broken line corresponds to the shadowy, soft, receptive primal power of yin. The attribute of the sign is devotion; its image is the earth. It is the perfect counterpart of the Creative: the counterpart, not the opposite; a complement, not an adversary. It is nature as against spirit, earth as against heaven, the spatial as against the temporal, the female and maternal as against the male and paternal. Carried over into human affairs, however, the principle of this counterpart is found not only in the relationship between man and woman but also in that of prince and minister or father and son; indeed, even within the individual this duality exists in the coexistence of the spiritual and the sensual.
Yet there can be no question of a true dualism, for the two signs stand in a clear order of rank to each other. In itself the Receptive is of course just as important as the Creative. But its attribute, devotion, marks the position of this primal power in relation to the Creative. It must remain under the guidance and stimulus of the Creative; then its working brings good. Only when it steps out of this position and tries to stand beside the Creative as an equal does it become evil. That gives rise to opposition and a struggle against the Creative, which brings harm to both sides.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
The Receptive brings about supreme success,favourable through the perseverance of a mare.If the noble one has something to undertake and tries to lead,he goes astray; but if he follows, he finds guidance.It is favourable to find friends to the west and south,to do without friends to the east and north.Calm perseverance brings good fortune.
The four fundamental tendencies of the Creative, ‘supreme success, favourable through perseverance’, are also found as a description of the Receptive. Only here the perseverance is defined more closely as the perseverance of a mare. The Receptive stands for spatial reality as against the spiritual possibility of the Creative. When the possible becomes real and the spiritual becomes spatial, this always happens through a limiting, individual determination. That is indicated here by adding to the word ‘perseverance’ the closer definition ‘of a mare’. The horse belongs to the earth as the dragon belongs to heaven; through its tireless movement across the plain it symbolises the wide expanse of the earth. The word ‘mare’ is chosen because the mare unites the strength and speed of the horse with the gentleness and devotion of the cow.
Nature can realise the impulses of the Creative only because it is equal to the Creative’s being. Its wealth lies in nourishing all beings, and its greatness in making everything beautiful and splendid. So it brings about the thriving of all that lives. Whereas the Creative begets things, they are born of the Receptive. Carried over into human affairs, the point is to act as the situation requires. One does not hold an independent position but works as a helper. Then the task is to accomplish something. The task is not to try to lead (that would only lead one astray) but to let oneself be led. If one knows how to meet fate with devotion, one will surely find fitting guidance. The noble one lets himself be guided. He does not rush blindly ahead, but gathers from circumstances what is asked of him and follows this direction of fate.
Since something is to be accomplished, one needs helpers and friends in the time of work and exertion, when the ideas to be carried out are already settled. The time of work and exertion is expressed by the west and south. For south and west symbolise the place where the Receptive works for the Creative, as nature does in summer and autumn; if one does not gather all one’s forces then, one will not get through the work one has to do. So here, to gain friends means precisely to find the means of accomplishment. But besides work and exertion there is also a time of planning and ordering, and that calls for solitude. The east symbolises the place where one receives one’s orders from one’s master, and the north the place where one reports on what has been accomplished. Then one must be alone and impartial. In this sacred hour one must do without companions, so that the hatred and favour of factions do not cloud one’s purity.
A view is found here similar to the one Goethe expresses in these verses:
So look with modest gaze uponThe masterpiece of the eternal weaver,How one tread sets a thousand threads astir,The shuttles shooting to and fro,The threads that meet and flow along,One stroke that strikes a thousand ties;All this she did not scrounge together,She warped it from eternity,So that the eternal master craftsmanMay cast the weft with confidence.
The state of the earth is receptive devotion.So the noble one, spacious in his nature, bears the outer world.
Just as there is only one heaven, there is also only one earth. But whereas with heaven the doubling of the sign means duration in time, with the earth it means the spatial extent and firmness with which it carries and sustains everything that lives and moves upon it. In its devotion the earth carries good and evil alike, without exception. So the noble one makes his character broad, solid and able to bear weight, so that he is able to carry and endure people and things.
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 ○.
If one treads on frost, the hard ice draws near.
Just as hoarfrost in autumn comes before the ice, barely noticeable signs of decay keep growing according to a fixed law until the damage is done. Take such first signs seriously, at work, in a relationship or in your own body. If you pay attention early and correct course in time, you can prevent it.
As the light power represents life, so the shadowy power represents death. In autumn, when the first frost falls, the power of darkness and cold is only beginning to unfold. After the first traces, the signs of death gradually multiply according to fixed laws, until at last rigid winter has arrived with its ice.
It is just the same in life. Once certain barely noticeable signs of decay appear, things go on until at last ruin has arrived. But in life one can forestall this by heeding the signs of decay and meeting them in good time.
Straight, right-angled, great.Without intent, and yet nothing fails to prosper.
This is about acting quite naturally: honestly, calmly and with a generous heart, like nature, which brings everything forth without any special intent. You don’t need to plan or force anything special now. Follow what the situation calls for, without leaving anything out or adding anything, and it will come right.
Heaven has the circle as its symbol, earth the right-angled square. Being right-angled is thus an original attribute of the earth. Straight movement, on the other hand, is originally an attribute of the Creative, as is greatness. But all right-angled things have their root in the straight line and in turn form solid magnitudes. When mathematics distinguishes lines, planes and solids, straight lines give rise to right-angled planes, and right-angled planes to cubic magnitudes. The Receptive conforms to the attributes of the Creative and makes them its own. So a straight line becomes a square, and a square becomes a cube. This is simple devotion to the laws of the Creative, without taking anything away or adding anything. Therefore the Receptive needs no special intention or effort, and everything turns out right.
Nature brings forth beings without falsehood: that is its straightness; it is calm and still: that is its right-angledness; it does not refuse to tolerate any being: that is its greatness. Therefore, without outward contrivance or special intentions, it achieves what is right for all. For man, the highest wisdom is to become as natural in his actions as nature itself.
Concealed lines; one can remain persevering.Should you happen to serve a king,do not strive after works, but carry them through!
Someone free of vanity doesn’t show off their abilities too early, and so can ripen in peace. If you work for others or within something larger, gladly let them have the credit. Put your ambition into the work itself and finish it in a way that bears fruit later.
If one is free of vanity, one can keep one’s merits so well hidden that they do not draw public attention too soon. In this way one can mature in quiet. If circumstances require it, one may also step forward in public, but even then with reserve. The wise man will gladly leave the glory to others. He does not seek finished results to be counted to his credit, but hopes rather for causes that go on working; that is, he completes his works in such a way that they bear fruit for the future.
A sack tied shut. No blame; no praise.
The time is dangerous, and putting yourself forward in any way does harm: it stirs up either the hostility of stronger people or praise built on a misunderstanding. Keep a low profile and keep your plans and opinions to yourself, even in company. That earns you no recognition, yet it is not a mistake, and that is exactly what protects you now.
The shadowy opens when it moves and closes when it rests. The strictest reserve is depicted here. The time is dangerous: any stepping forward leads either to the enmity of overpowering opponents, if one tried to fight them, or to recognition founded on a misunderstanding, if one were to be too accommodating. So the thing is to close oneself off, whether in solitude or amid the bustle of the world: for there too one can hide so well that no one knows one.
A yellow undergarment brings supreme good fortune.
Yellow stands for what is genuine and reliable, the plainly trimmed undergarment for refined reserve. This speaks to someone who works in a prominent position and yet remains answerable to another. Your success now rests on discretion: let your genuineness work from within and don’t press it on anyone; then it turns out very well.
Yellow is the colour of the earth and of the centre, the symbol of what is reliable and genuine. The undergarment is unobtrusively adorned, the symbol of distinguished reserve. When someone is called to work in a prominent but not independent position, true success depends on the utmost discretion. Genuineness and refinement must not come to the fore directly, but should express themselves only indirectly, as an effect from within.
Dragons do battle on the green.Their blood is black and yellow.
A fight breaks out when someone claims a position that does not belong to them and wants to rule where their place would be to serve. In the end they are brought down, yet both sides come away harmed. Ask yourself honestly whether you are claiming something for yourself that isn’t yours by right, and give way before it comes to open battle.
In the topmost place the shadowy ought to yield to the light. If it tries to hold its ground in a place that is not its due, and to rule instead of serving, it draws upon itself the wrath of the strong. It comes to a struggle in which it is overthrown, but in which both sides suffer harm.
The dragon, the symbol of heaven, comes and fights the false dragon, into whose likeness the earthly has here exalted itself. Blue-black is the colour of heaven, yellow the colour of earth. So when black and yellow blood flows, it is a sign that through this unnatural struggle both primal powers suffer harm.
Whereas the top line of the Creative shows titanic pride and forms a parallel to the Greek legend of Icarus, the top line of the Receptive offers a parallel to the myth of Lucifer, who rebels against the supreme godhead, or to the struggle of the dark powers against the gods of Valhalla, which ends in the twilight of the gods.
Lasting perseverance is favourable.
When all six lines move, the Receptive becomes the Creative. It gains the strength to stay with what is right and hold on to it for a long time. Expect no great progress for now, and no setback either, and hold patiently to what you have recognised as right.
When all the lines are sixes, the sign of the Receptive changes into the sign of the Creative. In this way it gains the strength of duration in holding fast to what is right. There is no progress, it is true, but no regression either.
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.