above Dschen, the Arousing, thunder · below Kiën, the Creative, heaven
Great strength that gets a lot done: that is what this hexagram is about. The danger is that you may come to rely on your power ‘without asking at every moment what is right’. For him, greatness and justice ‘must be inseparably joined’. With everything you push through now, check whether it is right, and wait for the right time. The Image advises taking no road that runs counter to the established order. Don’t let your strength turn into mere force.
Is the thing you are pushing through with all your strength actually the right thing?
The great lines, that is, the light, strong ones, are powerful. Four light lines have entered the hexagram from below and are about to rise further. The upper trigram is Dschen, the Arousing; the lower is Kiën, the Creative. The Creative is strong, the Arousing moves. The union of movement and strength gives the meaning of the power of the great. The hexagram is assigned to the second month (March to April).
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
The Power of the Great. Perseverance is favourable.
The hexagram points to a time when inner worth rises mightily and comes to power. But its strength has already passed beyond the middle. Hence the danger is close at hand that one may rely on one’s power without asking at every moment what is right, and that one may be bent on movement without waiting for the right time. That is why the sentence is added that perseverance is favourable. For that alone is truly great power which does not degenerate into mere force but remains inwardly bound to the principles of right and justice. Once one understands this point, that greatness and justice must be inseparably joined, one understands the true meaning of all that comes to pass in heaven and on earth.
Thunder high above in heaven:the image of the power of the great.So the noble one takes no roadthat is not in keeping with order.
Thunder, the electrical force, rises upward in spring. This movement is in harmony with the direction in which heaven moves. It is therefore a movement in accord with heaven that brings about great power. True greatness, however, rests on being in harmony with what is right. That is why, in times of great power, the noble one takes care not to do anything that is out of harmony with what is in keeping with order.
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 ○.
Power in the toes.To press on brings misfortune.That is truth beyond doubt.
Here great strength in a low place is itching to force progress. Anyone who carries on like this will surely find it turns out badly; the line gives an explicit warning. Hold your strength back for now and don’t push through anything your position is not yet strong enough for.
The toes are right at the bottom and ready to step forward. In the same way great power in a low place is inclined to force progress by violence. But if one carried on like this, it would surely lead to misfortune. Hence a warning has been added by way of counsel.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
The doors to success are starting to open, resistance is giving way, and you are moving forward powerfully. This is exactly where overconfidence creeps in all too easily and can no longer rein itself in. Keep your inner balance and don’t use your strength to excess; with this steadiness it turns out well.
The situation assumed is that the gates of success are beginning to open. Resistance is starting to give way. One is advancing powerfully. This is the point at which overconfidence, unable to rein itself in, all too easily sets in. Hence the oracle that perseverance (namely in inner balance, without any excessive use of power) brings good fortune.
The base man acts by power; the noble one does not.Pressing on is dangerous.A he-goat butts against a hedgeand tangles up its horns.
A goat butts against a hedge and gets its horns caught: that is what happens to anyone who insists on their power. Small-minded people revel in their strength; those who act with maturity give up the mere display of power in good time. Stop pushing before you get tangled up in it.
Insisting on one’s power leads to entanglements, just as a goat that butts against a hedge entangles its horns. While the base man revels in power once he has it, the noble one does not do so. He is aware of the danger of pressing on regardless, and so in good time he renounces the mere display of power.
Perseverance brings good fortune.Remorse disappears.The hedge parts, nothing is entangled.Power rests on the axle of a great wagon.
Quiet, persistent work on the obstacles makes them give way in the end. This turns out well, and what you regret will pass. This power is like the axle of a great wagon, which moves heavy loads forward without being seen. Keep working calmly; the less you show your strength outwardly, the more strongly it works.
If one works on quietly and perseveringly at removing the obstacles, one succeeds in the end. The obstructions give way, and the cause for remorse, which lay in using power to excess, disappears.
The power does not show itself outwardly, but its effect is to move heavy loads forward, like a great wagon whose strength rests on its axle. The less one applies power outwardly, the more strongly it works.
This also holds for struggles with one’s own imperfect nature. Here too the task is not to grow weary despite repeated relapses, but to keep on until success comes and the moment arrives of which it is said:
‘All that is transient,ensnared in sin,is past and gone.Wings are growing,the bolt is liftingto the eternal hall.’
Lightly he loses the goat.No remorse.
Everything has become easy, and there is no resistance left. So the hard, combative, goat-like stubbornness can go; it was more outer hardness than inner strength anyway. Lay it aside; you will have no cause to regret it.
The goat is marked by outer hardness and inner weakness. Now the situation is such that everything is quite easy; there is no resistance left. One may then lay aside one’s combative, goat-like stubbornness and will have no cause to regret it.
A he-goat butts against a hedge.It can neither go back nor go forward.Nothing is favourable.To see the difficulty brings good fortune.
If you have ventured too far, you reach a dead end: you can go neither forwards nor back, and every further push only tangles things more. Obstinacy won’t get you out of it. Recognise the difficulty, stop pushing and grow calm; in time it turns out well.
If one ventures too far, one reaches an impasse at which one can move neither forwards nor back, and everything serves only to entangle the matter further. Such obstinacy lands one in insurmountable difficulties. If one sees the situation for what it is and, instead of pressing on, grows calm, everything will come right again in time.
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.