above Gen, Keeping Still, mountain · below Kun, the Receptive, earth
This is a time when whatever no longer holds up falls apart. The Judgement says: ‘It is not favourable to go anywhere.’ The sensible course is to submit to the times and keep still, since conditions like these cannot be resisted; that is wisdom, and by no means cowardice. Look after the people and foundations you stand on now, and be generous to those who carry you, like a mountain resting broad on the earth. Starting something new or setting yourself against the course of things would be wrong now.
What can you stand firm on when other things around you are falling apart?
The dark lines are about to climb upwards and bring down the last firm, light line as well, undermining it by their influence. What is base and dark does not attack what is strong and noble head-on, but hollows it out gradually by imperceptible action, so that in the end it collapses.
The sign represents the picture of a house. The top line is the roof. When the roof is shattered, the house falls into ruin.
The sign is assigned to the ninth month (October to November). The yin force presses on ever more powerfully and is about to drive out the yang force completely.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Splitting apart. It is not favourable to go anywhere.
It is a time when base people are advancing and are on the point of driving out the last of the strong and noble ones. Because this is grounded in the course of time, it is not favourable for the noble one to undertake anything in such circumstances. The right conduct in such adverse times is to be learned from the images and their attributes. The lower trigram means the earth, whose attribute is docility and devotion; the upper trigram means the mountain, whose attribute is stillness. This suggests the counsel to submit to the bad time and to keep still. It is not a matter here of human agency but of the conditions of the time, which, according to heavenly laws, also show an alternation of increase and decrease, of fullness and emptiness. These conditions of the time cannot be resisted. Therefore it is not cowardice but wisdom to submit and to refrain from action.
The mountain rests on the earth: the image of splitting apart.So those above can secure their position only by giving richly to those below.
The mountain rests on the earth. If it is steep and narrow and has no broad base, it must collapse. Only by rising out of the earth broad and great, not proud and steep, is its position secure. So too those who rule rest on the broad foundation of the people. They too must be generous and large-minded, like the earth that carries all things; then their position will be as secure as a mountain at rest.
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 ○.
The bed is split at the leg.The persevering are destroyed. Misfortune.
At the start of a destructive movement, people who care only for their own advantage are secretly undermining things from below, and those who stay loyal are brought down by slander and intrigue. It turns out badly. There is nothing to do except wait; do not start an open fight now.
Base people draw near and secretly begin their destructive tunnelling from below, so as to undermine the place where the noble one rests. Those followers of the ruler who stay loyal to him are destroyed by slander and every kind of intrigue. The situation bodes misfortune. Yet there is nothing to be done but wait.
The bed is split at the edge.The persevering are destroyed. Misfortune.
Danger is drawing closer, the signs are already clear, and you stand alone, with no help from above or below. In this situation the utmost caution is needed. Adapt to the time and step aside early; if you cling rigidly and unbendingly to your standpoint, it turns out badly.
The power of base people is growing. Danger is already drawing near one’s own person. Clear signs are already appearing. Rest is disturbed. While one is in this dangerous situation, one is moreover without help or support from above or below. In this isolation the utmost caution is needed. One must adapt to the time and step aside in good time. Were one to go on upholding one’s standpoint unbendingly and perseveringly, it would lead to ruin.
He splits away from them. No blame.
You are in the middle of bad surroundings and outwardly tied to them, while inwardly you are bound to a better person. If an inner bond like that holds you, you can free yourself from the ways of the people around you. It puts you at odds with them, and that is not a mistake.
One stands in the midst of bad surroundings, to which one is also tied by outward connections. But there is an inner relationship with a higher man. Through it one gains the inner support to free oneself from the ways of the people around one. This may well bring one into opposition with them, but that is no mistake.
The bed is split up to the skin. Misfortune.
Here the misfortune no longer touches only your resting place; it reaches you personally. It turns out badly and cannot be averted. What is meant is the course of the times, which you can do nothing about just now; it says nothing about a person who is harming you. Keep still until the time turns.
Here misfortune reaches one’s own body, no longer merely the place of rest. No warning or other addition is given. Misfortune is at its height: it can no longer be averted.
A line of fish. Favour comes through the ladies of the palace.Everything is favourable.
Here the situation changes: what is weak no longer works against what is strong, and willingly places itself under its guidance, bringing the others along with it. In this way it finds its happiness, and what is higher gets its due as well. If you are in the weaker position, you gain more by following a good lead than by resisting.
Here, in the immediate vicinity of the strong, light principle above, the nature of the dark changes. It no longer opposes the strong principle with intrigue but submits to its guidance. Indeed, as head of the other weak lines, it leads them all to the strong one, just as a princess leads her waiting women to her husband like a line of fish and thereby wins his favour. When the lower thus submits freely to the higher, it finds its happiness, and the higher also receives its due. Therefore all goes well.
There is still a large fruit, uneaten.The noble one receives a carriage.The house of the base man is split apart.
At the end of the splitting apart one large fruit is still left, and from its seed the good grows again. Whoever has done right regains influence and is carried by others; whoever has acted basely sees their own house fall apart. Hold on: in the end what is bad destroys itself, and better times are coming.
Here the end of splitting apart has been reached. When misfortune has spent its fury, better times return. The seed of good still remains. Just when the fruit falls to the ground, good springs up anew from its seed. The noble one regains influence and effectiveness. He is borne up by public opinion as if in a carriage. But the base man’s wickedness takes its revenge on him. His house is split apart. Herein lies a law of nature. Evil is not only ruinous to the good; in its final consequences it also destroys itself, for evil, which lives only on negation, cannot subsist of itself. The base man, too, fares best when he is kept under discipline by a noble one.
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.