above Kan, the Abysmal, water · below Gen, Keeping Still, mountain
This is about an obstruction that can’t be overcome head-on. It is wise to stand still here and withdraw, as preparation for the next attempt. The obstruction throws you back on yourself: look for the fault in yourself, and the outer obstruction becomes an occasion for inner growth. Join forces with like-minded people and seek the guidance of someone who is equal to the situation; with perseverance it turns out well. Don’t look for the blame in others, and don’t accuse fate.
What is your own part in this obstruction?
The hexagram represents a dangerous abyss lying ahead; behind one is the steep, inaccessible mountain. Thus one is surrounded by obstructions. But in the mountain’s attribute of keeping still there lies at the same time a hint of how to find a way out of the obstructions. The hexagram represents obstructions that arise in the course of time but that can and should be overcome. Hence all the counsel given is directed towards overcoming the obstructions.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Obstruction. The south-west is favourable.The north-east is not favourable.It is favourable to see the great man.Perseverance brings good fortune.
The south-west is the region of retreat, the north-east the region of advance. This is a situation in which one is faced with obstructions that cannot be overcome directly. In such a case it is wise to stand still in the face of danger and to withdraw. This withdrawal, however, is only the preparation for overcoming the obstructions. One must join forces with like-minded friends and place oneself under the leadership of a man who is equal to the situation; then one will succeed in removing the obstructions. This calls for an attitude of perseverance precisely when one seemingly has to do something that leads away from the goal. This unswerving inner direction brings good fortune in the end. An obstruction that lasts only for a time is of value for the cultivation of one’s own personality. That is the value of hardship.
Upon the mountain is water: the image of obstruction.So the noble one turns towards his own selfand forms his character.
Difficulties and obstructions throw a man back upon himself. But while the base man looks for the blame outside, in other people, and accuses fate, the noble one seeks the fault in himself, and through this turning inward the outer obstruction becomes for him an occasion for inner enrichment and cultivation.
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 go leads into obstruction; to come finds praise.
Faced with an obstruction, first consider how best to deal with it. Pushing blindly forward only leads you into entanglements. Withdraw for now without giving up the struggle, and wait for the right moment to act; that earns you recognition.
When one finds oneself facing an obstruction, the point is to consider how best to deal with it. When danger threatens us, we must not strive blindly forward; that would only lead to entanglements. Rather, it is right to withdraw at first, not in order to give up the struggle but to wait for the right moment to act.
The king’s servant stands amid obstruction upon obstruction.Yet the fault is not his own.
Here difficulty piles upon difficulty, because duty in the service of a larger cause leads you straight into it. When you are bound like this, you may go out to meet the danger instead of going round it. Do so and stay calm inside; you did not get into this situation through any fault of your own.
While normally it is best to go round an obstruction and try to overcome it along the line of least resistance, there is nevertheless one case in which one must go out to meet the difficulty, even when difficulty towers upon difficulty: namely when the path of duty leads to the point where one cannot act of one’s own free choice but has the duty to seek out danger in the service of a higher cause. Then one may do so and be perfectly at peace within, because it is not through any fault of one’s own that one has entered this difficult situation.
To go leads into obstructions; and so he turns back.
Anyone responsible for others, as head of a family or a group, must not throw themselves recklessly into danger, because their people cannot manage without them. Turn back to those who depend on you. They will welcome you home with great joy.
While the preceding line shows the official who must take the path of danger for duty’s sake, here the man is shown who has to act as father of a family or head of his household. Were he to throw himself heedlessly into danger, it would be of no use, since those entrusted to his keeping cannot make their way alone. If, on the other hand, he withdraws and turns back to his own, they greet him with great joy.
To go leads into obstructions,to come leads to union.
This is a situation you are not equal to on your own; here the straight way is not the shortest. Anyone who presses forward by their own strength without preparation finds no support and realises too late that their reckoning was wrong. Hold back for now and gather reliable companions you can lean on.
Here too a situation is depicted that one is not equal to alone. In such a case the straight way is not the shortest. If one tried to press forward by one’s own strength, without the necessary preparations, one would not find the support one needs and would realise too late that the reckoning was false, because the circumstances one hoped to count on prove too weak. In this case, therefore, it is more correct to hold back at first and to gather about one reliable companions on whom one can lean in overcoming the obstructions.
Amid the greatest obstructions, friends arrive.
In the midst of the greatest obstructions, friends arrive. This holds for anyone called to relieve distress, who for that very reason must not step aside. Face the difficulty, accept the help of the people who come to you, and share out the work methodically, so that together you all overcome the obstruction.
Here we see the man who is called to relieve the distress. He must not try to evade the obstructions, however dangerously they may tower up before him. But because he truly has a higher calling, the power of his spirit is strong enough to draw people to him, so that they come and help him, and he is able to organise them properly, so that through the well-planned and well-distributed cooperation of all concerned the obstruction is overcome.
To go leads into obstructions, to come leads to great good fortune.It is favourable to see the great man.
Someone who has already left the bustle of the world behind might be tempted to withdraw from it entirely. That path is closed to them; duty calls them back once more. Bring your experience and your inner freedom to bear, and seek out someone of real stature with whom the work can be done; that turns out very well.
Here someone is depicted who has already left the world and its bustle behind him. Now, when the time of obstructions comes upon the world, it might seem that the simplest thing for him would be just to leave the world behind and flee into the beyond. But this path is closed to him. He must not seek his own salvation alone and abandon the world to its distress. Instead, his duty calls him back once more into the bustle of the world. It is precisely his experience and inner freedom that then enable him to create something great and mature that brings good fortune. And it is favourable to see the great man, together with whom one can accomplish the work of rescue.
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.