above Dschen, the Arousing, thunder · below Sun, the Gentle, wind
This is about how a relationship, a piece of work or a path can last. Duration here is a movement that renews itself, in which every ending is followed by a new beginning, like breathing in and out. Anyone who wants to last, he writes, moves with the times and changes with them; what endures is the firm direction. Keep your goal firmly in view and stay flexible about the way there: adjusting as you go is how you succeed. Beware of rigidity, for simply standing still means going backwards.
What is your fixed goal, and where can you allow yourself to be more flexible on the way there?
The strong sign Dschen is above, the weak sign Sun below. The sign is the counterpart of the preceding one: there influence, here union as a lasting condition. The images are thunder and wind, which are likewise phenomena that are permanently joined. The lower sign points to gentleness within, the upper to movement without.
Applied to social relationships, we have here the institution of marriage as the lasting union of the sexes. Whereas in courtship the young man places himself beneath the maiden, in marriage, which is represented by the coming together of the eldest son and the eldest daughter, the husband leads and moves outwardly, while the wife within is gentle and obedient.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Success. No blame.It is favourable to persevere.It is favourable to have somewhere to go.
Duration is a state whose movement is not worn down by hindrances. It is not a state of rest, for mere standstill is regression. Duration is rather the movement of an organised whole, firmly closed in on itself: a movement that is self-contained and therefore always renewing itself, that takes place according to fixed laws, and in which every ending is followed by a new beginning. The end is reached through movement inwards: breathing in, systole, concentration. This movement passes over into a new beginning, in which the movement is directed outwards: breathing out, diastole, expansion.
Thus the heavenly bodies have their courses in the sky and can therefore shine continually. The seasons have a fixed law of change and transformation and can therefore be continually at work.
And so the one called to his task also has a lasting meaning in his way, and through this the world is brought to its completed form. From that in which things have their duration, one can recognise the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.
Thunder and wind: the image of duration.So the noble one stands firm and does not change his direction.
The thunder rolls and the wind blows. Both are things of the utmost mobility, so that to all appearances they are the opposite of duration. Yet their emerging and withdrawing, their coming and going, follow lasting laws. So too the independence of the noble one does not lie in his being rigid and immovable. He always moves with the times and changes with them. What endures is the firm direction, the inner law of his nature, which determines all his actions.
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 ○.
To seek duration too hastily brings misfortune when persevered in.Nothing that would be favourable.
Trying to force something lasting all at once is overhasty. What is meant to endure only comes about gradually, through long work and careful thought. Don’t ask too much at once; if you want too much, it turns out badly.
Something lasting can be created only gradually, through long work and careful thought. ‘What you wish to compress, you must first allow to expand properly,’ says Laotse in this sense. Whoever demands too much at once acts rashly. And because he wants too much, in the end he achieves nothing at all.
Here remorse disappears.
Here your inner strength is greater than your outward means, and you could be carried away into something beyond your powers. Keep your strength steadily in check and avoid every excess. Then what you regret will pass.
The situation is abnormal. The strength of character is greater than the material power at one’s disposal. One might perhaps fear being carried away into something beyond one’s strength. But since it is the time of duration, one succeeds in mastering one’s inner strength, so that every excess is avoided, and so the cause for remorse disappears.
Whoever does not give duration to his characterhas disgrace offered him.Humiliation that persists.
If you let fear and hope drive you this way and that, your character loses its inner coherence. That leads again and again to embarrassing experiences, often from a quarter you never expected. Stay true to yourself and steady; the humiliations come less from outside than from your own inconstancy.
If one’s nature is driven hither and thither by moods that the outer world arouses through fear and hope, one loses the inner consistency of character. Such inner inconsistency leads again and again to painful experiences. These humiliations often come from a quarter one had not thought of. Nor are they so much effects of the outer world as lawful consequences set off by one’s own nature.
There is no game in the field.
A hunter waits patiently where there is no game, and of course finds none. Persistence alone is not enough. Check whether you are looking in the right place and in the right way; what you look for in the wrong way you won’t find, however long you wait.
If one wants to get a shot when hunting, one must go about it in the right way. If one keeps stalking game in a place where there is none, one may wait as long as one likes and will find none. To keep on searching is not enough. What one does not seek in the right way, one does not find.
To give duration to one’s character through perseveranceis good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.
The saying comes from the gender roles of its time: steadily holding to tradition turns out well for the one who follows another, and turns out badly for the one who leads. Anyone who carries responsibility has to stay flexible. If that is you, be guided by what duty asks at each moment, and don’t cling rigidly to what you are used to.
A woman should follow one man all her life, but a man should hold to whatever is his duty at the time; were he always to take his lead from the woman, that would be a fault in him.
Accordingly, for a woman a conservative holding to tradition is quite good. The man, on the other hand, must remain flexible and adaptable and let himself be guided only by what his duty demands at the time.
Restlessness as a lasting condition brings misfortune.
Some people are forever in hasty motion and never come to rest within. This restlessness rules out any thoroughness and becomes dangerous once it holds sway where decisions are made. As a lasting state it turns out badly. Come to rest before you carry on, especially when others depend on your decisions.
There are people who are forever in hasty motion without ever coming to rest within. Restlessness not only hinders all thoroughness but becomes an outright danger when it prevails in a position of authority.
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.