above Kiën, the Creative, heaven · below Dschen, the Arousing, thunder
This sign has two names, Innocence and the Unexpected. It is about acting without ulterior motives, and also about the unintended things that simply happen to you. If you do what is right with no eye on reward or advantage, you have an instinctive certainty that comes from within. Do what you believe is right and say plainly what you mean, even if it gains you nothing; then it succeeds. Be careful not to misread this, though: the certainty holds only for what is right. ‘If someone is not upright, he meets with misfortune’, says the Judgement.
What would you do if you thought only of what is right, and not of the reward?
Above is Kiën, heaven; below is Dschen, movement. The lower sign, Dschen, is determined by the strong line it has received from above, from heaven. When movement accordingly follows the law of heaven, man is innocent and without guile. This is what is genuine and natural, unclouded by deliberation or ulterior motives. Where one notices the intention, the truth and innocence of nature are lost. Nature without the guidance of the spirit is not true nature but degenerate nature. Starting from the idea of the natural, the line of thought is in part carried further still, and so the sign also embraces the idea of the unintended, the unexpected.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Innocence. Supreme success.It is favourable to persevere.If someone is not upright, he meets with misfortune,and it is not favourable to undertake anything at all.
Man has received from heaven a nature that is good in its origin, so that it may guide him in all his movements. By devoting himself to this divine element within him, man attains a pure innocence that simply does what is right with instinctive certainty, with no hidden thought of reward or advantage. This instinctive certainty brings supreme success and is favourable through perseverance. Not everything instinctive, however, is nature in this higher sense of the word, but only what is right and accords with the will of heaven. Without this rightness, unconsidered instinctive action brings nothing but misfortune. Master Kung says of this: ‘Where does he end who departs from innocence? The will and blessing of heaven are not with his deeds.’
Thunder moves beneath heaven:all things attain the natural state of innocence.So the kings of old tended and nourished,rich in virtue and in keeping with the time, all beings.
When the thunder, the life force, stirs again beneath heaven in spring, everything sprouts and grows, and all creatures receive from creative nature the childlike innocence of their original being. The good rulers of men do likewise: out of the inner wealth of their nature they care for all life and all culture, and at the right time they do everything that is needed to foster them.
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 ○.
Innocent conduct brings good fortune!
This is the first, original stirring of the heart, before any calculation creeps in. Such first stirrings are always good. Follow them with confidence; when you act with such innocence, you can trust that it turns out well.
The first, original stirrings of the heart are always good, so that one may follow them with confidence and be sure of good fortune and of reaching one’s aim.
If one does not think of the harvest while ploughing,nor of using the ground while clearing it,then it is favourable to undertake something.
The line shows work done for its own sake, without already thinking of the yield. Do what the time and place ask of you now, and don’t keep one eye on success. That is exactly how the thing comes good, and whatever you begin makes headway.
Every task should be done for its own sake, as time and place require, and not with one eye on success; then it turns out well, and whatever one undertakes succeeds.
Undeserved misfortune:the cow that someone had tetheredis the wanderer’s gain, the townsman’s loss.
Sometimes harm comes to you through no fault of your own, set off by someone else: what one person picks up in passing, another loses. Even with good intentions, take care to choose the right moment, or the unexpected will catch you out more easily.
Sometimes undeserved misfortune befalls one through the doing of another, as when a man comes along the road and leads off a tethered cow. His gain is the owner’s loss. In all actions, even innocent ones, one must keep to the right time, or else unexpected misfortune befalls one.
He who is able to persevere remains without blame.
What truly belongs to you cannot be lost, even if you were to throw it away. So there is no need to worry. Stay true to your own nature, which is no mistake, and pay no attention now to what others try to talk you into.
What truly belongs to one cannot be lost, even if one were to throw it away. So there is no need to worry at all. One need only take care to remain true to one’s own nature and not to listen to others.
In an illness one has not brought upon oneself, use no medicine.It will come right of itself.
The image is of an ill that comes from outside by chance and finds no foothold in your own nature. In that case, don’t hurry to reach for outward means to be rid of it. Let things quietly take their course; it will get better of its own accord. If it is an illness in the literal sense, the old saying is no substitute for a doctor’s advice.
If an unexpected ill comes from outside, by chance, one that is not rooted in one’s own nature and finds no foothold there, one should not reach for outward means to remove it but quietly let nature take its course; then it will get better of its own accord.
Innocent action brings misfortune.Nothing is favourable.
In this situation there is no progress to be had, and even well-meant action leads nowhere. Wait quietly and without ulterior motives. If you push forward rashly against the way things are going, you achieve nothing.
When one is in a situation in which progress is no longer timely, the thing to do is to wait quietly and without ulterior motives. If one acts rashly in order to push forward against fate, success will not be achieved.
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.