above Dui, the Joyous, lake · below Kiën, the Creative, heaven
Something bad has taken hold, out in the world or in your own heart, and it has to go. The Judgement sets out the conditions: openly and in accordance with the truth, without taking up arms. Resoluteness must also rest on strength and friendliness together, and you begin at home. ‘The best way to fight evil is energetic progress in the good.’ Calmly name what you are no longer willing to put up with, and keep doing the better thing. Don’t fight it blow for blow, or you become entangled in hatred yourself.
What are you no longer willing to put up with, and what progress in the good would make the fight unnecessary?
On the one hand, the sign means a breakthrough after tension has long been building up, like a swollen river breaking through its dykes, like a cloudburst. Applied to human affairs, on the other hand, it is the time when base people are gradually dwindling. Their influence is waning, and through resolute action a change in conditions breaks through. The sign is assigned to the third month (April to May).
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Breakthrough.At the court of the king one must resolutelymake the matter known.It must be proclaimed in accordance with the truth. Danger!One must notify one’s own city.It is not favourable to take up arms.It is favourable to undertake something.
If even one base man holds on to a ruling place in a city, he is able to oppress the noble ones. If even a single passion still nests in the heart, it is able to cloud reason. Passion and reason cannot exist side by side; therefore an unconditional struggle is necessary if one wants to bring the good to power. But the resolute struggle of the good to do away with evil has definite rules, which must not be disregarded if one wants to succeed. 1. Resoluteness must rest on a union of strength and friendliness. 2. No compromise with what is bad is possible; it must under all circumstances be openly discredited. Likewise, one’s own passions and faults must not be whitewashed. 3. The struggle must not be waged directly by force. Where evil has been branded, it turns its thoughts to weapons, and if one does it the favour of fighting it blow for blow, one comes off worse, because one thereby becomes entangled in hatred and passion oneself. So it is important to begin at home: to be personally on guard against the faults that have been branded. Then the weapons of evil grow blunt of themselves when they find no opponent. Likewise, one’s own faults must not be fought directly. As long as one grapples with them, they always remain victorious. 4. The best way to fight evil is energetic progress in the good.
The lake has risen up to heaven:the image of breakthrough.Thus the noble one bestows wealth on those belowand shrinks from lingering in his virtue.
When the water of the lake has risen up to heaven, a cloudburst is to be feared. The noble one takes this as a warning and forestalls a violent collapse in good time. Whoever wanted to heap up riches for himself alone, without thinking of others, would be sure to see a collapse come upon him. For all gathering is followed by scattering. Therefore the noble one scatters even while he gathers. In the same way, in forming his character he takes care not to harden into obstinacy, but to keep himself open to impressions through constant, strict self-examination.
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 ○.
Mighty in the forward-striding toes.If one goes and is not equal to the task,one makes a mistake.
At the start of a resolute push, enthusiasm runs high, while the resistance is still strong. Measure your strength first and go only as far as you are sure of success. Blind recklessness would be a mistake, because a setback right at the beginning has especially serious consequences.
In times of resolute advance, the very beginning is especially difficult. One feels fired to press resolutely forward. But the resistance is still very strong. So one must gauge one’s own strength and commit oneself only as far as one is sure of success. Blind recklessness is an evil, for at the very beginning an unexpected setback can have the most disastrous consequences.
A cry of alarm. Arms in the evening and at night.Fear nothing.
This is a watchfulness that takes precautions before any danger is in sight. If you stay careful and level-headed, you need not take fright when things suddenly become unsettled, and even then you have nothing to fear. ‘To keep a clear head and not to forget one’s armour: that is the right way to security.’
Readiness is everything. Resoluteness is inseparably bound up with caution. If one is careful and level-headed, one need not take fright or become agitated. If one is watchful at all times while there is as yet no danger, one is armed when danger approaches and need not be afraid. The noble one is on guard against what is not yet to be seen and concerned about what is not yet to be heard; therefore he dwells in the midst of difficulties as though they were no difficulties. If one cultivates one’s character, people fall in with one of their own accord. When reason prevails, the passions withdraw of their own accord. To keep a clear head and not to forget one’s armour: that is the right way to security.
To be mighty in the cheekbones brings misfortune.The noble one is firmly resolved.He walks alone and runs into rain.He is splashed, and people grumble against him.No blame.
The situation is ambiguous: everyone is taking a firm stand against something bad, and you alone still have ties to the person involved. Showing your strength too early turns out badly and puts the whole cause at risk. Stay firm inside and keep out of their doings, even if you are misjudged and people grumble about you; that way you make no mistake.
The situation one is in is ambiguous. While everyone is engaged in a resolute struggle against what is base, one alone stands in a certain relationship to a base man. If one now wanted to make an outward show of strength and turn against him before the time is ripe, one would only endanger the situation as a whole; for the base man would then resort to countermeasures too soon. The task of the higher man is extremely difficult here. He must be firmly resolved within and, while associating with the base man, still keep himself apart from any share in his baseness. In doing so he is naturally misjudged. People think he belongs to the base man’s party. He is quite alone, because no one understands him. His dealings with the base man sully him in the eyes of the crowd, and they turn against him grumbling. But he bears being misjudged and makes no mistake, since he remains true to himself.
There is no skin on the thighs,and walking is hard going.If one let oneself be led like a sheep,remorse would disappear.But if one hears these words,one will not believe them.
This is an inner restlessness that cannot keep still and wants to push on at all costs, until it meets obstacles it cannot overcome. The cause is obstinacy. Let go of it and allow yourself to be led, and all goes well. This is the very advice people tend to ignore, because obstinacy ‘means that one has ears and yet does not hear’.
One suffers from an inner restlessness, so that one cannot stay in one’s place. One wants to push forward at all costs and meets insurmountable obstacles in doing so. So one is in inner conflict with one’s situation. This comes from the obstinacy with which one wants to have one’s way. If one gave up this obstinacy, all would go well. But this advice, like so much good advice, will go unheeded. For obstinacy means that one has ears and yet does not hear.
Against weeds, firm resolution is needed.Walking in the middle remains free of blame.
Something bad keeps growing back here like weeds, and because it sits in a high place and you have ties to it, it is tempting to give up the fight as hopeless. Don’t. Carry on resolutely without letting yourself be turned from the path, and keep to the right measure; that way you remain free of blame.
Weeds keep growing back and are hard to root out. In the same way, the struggle against a base man in a high place needs firm resolution. One has ties with him, and as a result there is reason to fear that one may give up the struggle as hopeless. But that must not happen. One must carry on resolutely and not let oneself be turned from the path. Only thus does one remain free of blame.
No cry! In the end misfortune comes.
Victory seems won; only a small remnant of the trouble is left, and everything looks easy. That is exactly where the danger lies: what you overlook escapes and grows back, and in the end it turns out badly. See the matter through thoroughly, your own weaknesses included, and don’t leave anything behind out of carelessness.
Victory seems to have been won. Only a remnant is left of the evil, and the time has come to root it out resolutely. Everything looks quite easy. But that is precisely where the danger lies. If one is not on guard, evil manages to escape by concealing itself, and once it has got away, new misfortune grows from the seeds left behind; for evil does not die easily. With the evil in one’s own character, too, one must do thorough work. If one were careless enough to leave anything over, new evil would arise from it.
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.