above Li, the Clinging, fire · below Dschen, the Arousing, thunder
Biting through stands for an obstacle that negotiation will no longer shift. Deliberate obstructions do not vanish of their own accord; you have to step in energetically. He pairs the hardness of thunder with the clarity of lightning: hardness alone would be too violent, clarity alone too weak, and together they strike the right balance. Name the obstacle clearly and act with resolve; then it succeeds. Avoid vagueness and laxity, which in his view are what make obstacles serious in the first place.
What obstacle do you need to name plainly so that it can be resolved?
The sign represents an open mouth (compare No. 27, I) with an obstacle between its teeth (in the fourth place). Because of this the lips cannot meet. To bring them together, the obstacle must be bitten through energetically. The sign is further made up of the trigrams for thunder and lightning, to indicate how obstacles are removed by force in nature. Energetic biting through overcomes the obstacle to union in the mouth. The storm with thunder and lightning overcomes the disturbing tension in nature. Trial and punishment overcome the disturbances that criminals and slanderers cause to the harmony of life together. Unlike sign No. 6, Conflict, which deals with civil lawsuits, the subject here is criminal proceedings.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Biting through has success.It is favourable to let justice take its course.
When an obstacle stands in the way of union, energetic biting through brings success. This holds in all circumstances. Wherever unity fails to come about, it is always held up by a go-between who carries tales and betrays, by someone who hinders and obstructs. Then one must step in energetically so that no lasting harm arises. Such deliberate obstructions do not vanish of their own accord. Judgement and punishment are needed to deter or to remove them.
But in doing so one must proceed in the right way. The sign is composed of Li, clarity, and Dschen, arousal. Li is soft, Dschen is hard. Hardness and arousal alone would be too violent in punishing; clarity and softness alone would be too weak. Both together create the right measure. It is important that the man who decides, represented by the fifth line, is gentle by nature, while his position commands awe.
Thunder and lightning: the image of biting through.So the former kings made the laws firmthrough penalties clearly laid down.
Penalties are the individual applications of the laws. The laws contain the record of the penalties. Clarity prevails when, in fixing the penalties, lighter and heavier ones are clearly distinguished according to the offences they answer. This is symbolised by the clarity of lightning. The laws are made firm by the just application of penalties. This is symbolised by the terror of thunder. The purpose of this clarity and severity is to keep people in awe; the penalties are not important for their own sake. The obstacles in people’s life together all become serious through vagueness in the penal provisions and laxity in carrying them out. Only through clarity and the sure swiftness of punishment are the laws made firm.
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 ○.
Stuck in the stocks by the feet, so that the toes disappear.No blame.
This line shows a light penalty at the very first attempt to do wrong. It is a warning to stop in good time when you are on a wrong path. If a first misstep earns you a small setback, count yourself lucky: it keeps you from carrying on and spares you something bigger. That way there is no mistake.
If someone incurs punishment at the very first attempt to do wrong, the penalty is only light. Only the toes are covered by the stocks. He is thereby kept from sinning further and so becomes free of blame. This is a warning to stop in good time on the path of evil.
Independently of the overall meaning of the sign, the individual lines are explained in such a way that the first and the topmost suffer punishment, while the rest are occupied with imposing it (compare the corresponding lines of sign No. 4, Mong, Youthful Folly).
Bites through tender meat, so that the nose disappears.No blame.
Right and wrong are easy to tell apart here, yet you come up against a stubborn opponent and in your anger go a little too far. Indignation clouds your finer judgement. Try not to get carried away; still, because your cause is just, overstepping the mark is not a mistake.
In this case right and wrong are easy to tell apart. It is like biting through tender meat. But one comes up against a hardened sinner. Therefore, in anger and agitation, one goes a little too far. The disappearance of the nose in biting means that indignation makes one lose the finer sense of discernment. Yet this does little harm, because the punishment as such is just.
Bites on old dried meat and comes upon something poisonous.Slight humiliation. No blame.
Someone has to sort out an old, tangled matter without enough power or standing to do it. Those affected refuse to submit, and you draw poisonous hatred upon yourself. That leaves you in a somewhat humiliating position; since stepping in was necessary, though, it is not a mistake.
Someone is to carry out a punishment for which he lacks sufficient power and authority. So those who are punished do not submit. It is an old matter (symbolised by salted game), and in dealing with it one meets with difficulties. The old meat is spoiled. By taking up the matter one draws poisonous hatred upon oneself, and so one ends up in a somewhat humiliating position. But since punishment was what the time required, one nonetheless remains free of blame.
Bites on dried gristly meat.Receives metal arrows.It is favourableto be mindful of difficulties and persevering.Good fortune!
A very hard task lies ahead: powerful opponents must be called to account, and that is laborious. For this you need the hardness of metal and the straightness of an arrow. If you see the difficulties clearly and keep at it, it turns out well in the end.
There are very great difficulties to be overcome. Powerful opponents are to be punished. This is very laborious. Yet it succeeds. But one must have the hardness of metal and the straightness of an arrow to overcome the difficulties. If one knows these difficulties and remains persevering, one attains good fortune. The difficult task succeeds in the end.
Bites on dried lean meat.Receives yellow gold.To be persistently aware of danger. No blame.
Here you have to decide a case that is clear, if hardly easy, and your own good nature makes it harder. Pull yourself together and be impartial and true as gold. Stay aware of the dangers that come with the responsibility you have taken on; then you make no mistake.
One has to decide a case which, though not easy, is clear. But one’s own nature inclines to leniency. So one must take oneself in hand and be like yellow gold, that is, impartial (yellow is the colour of the middle) and true as gold. Only if one is constantly aware of the dangers arising from the responsibility one has taken on does one remain free of faults.
Stuck in the wooden collar by the neck,so that the ears disappear.Misfortune!
The picture is of someone who no longer listens to warnings because he has gone deaf to them. Such obstinacy turns out badly. When someone warns you, listen, before small lapses pile up into guilt that can no longer be wiped away.
Here, unlike the first line, we have a man who is incorrigible. As punishment he wears the wooden collar about his neck. But his ears disappear in it. He no longer listens to warnings but is deaf to them. This obduracy leads to misfortune.
On ‘A nine at the start’, Kungtse remarks:
The base man is not ashamed of unkindness and does not shrink from injustice. If he sees no advantage beckoning, he does not stir. If he is not intimidated, he does not mend his ways. But if he is set right in small things, he takes care in great ones. That is a piece of luck for the lesser man.
On ‘A nine at the top’, Kungtse remarks:
If good does not accumulate, it is not enough to make a man’s name. If evil does not accumulate, it is not strong enough to destroy a man. Therefore the base man thinks that good in small things is of no value, and so he leaves it undone. He thinks: small sins do no harm. So he does not break himself of them. Thus his sins accumulate until they can no longer be covered up, and his guilt grows so great that it can no longer be dissolved.
It should be noted that there is another interpretation which, starting from the idea ‘light above, that is, the sun, movement below’, takes the sign to mean a market that is astir below while the sun stands above in the sky. It is, moreover, a market for food. The meat points to foodstuffs. Gold and arrows are articles of trade. The disappearance of the nose means the disappearance of smell, that is, the person concerned is not greedy. The poison points to the dangers of wealth, and so on.
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.