above Sun, the Gentle, wind · below Kan, the Abysmal, water
This is about people who have frozen up towards one another, like water turning to ice in winter. What is meant is the hardness of egoism, which divides people. What loosens it is something that takes hold of everyone at once: a celebration, or a great shared undertaking in which, as in a boat crossing a great river, everyone has to pull together. Look for something you can take on or celebrate together; then you will succeed in loosening it. Check your own motives as you go; only someone free of selfish ulterior motives can dissolve such hardness.
What could you take on together, so that what has frozen begins to thaw?
The wind above moves over the water, scattering it and dissolving it into foam and mist. This also contains the thought that when vital energy is dammed up in a person (which the attribute of the lower sign indicates as danger), it is dispersed and dissolved again by gentleness.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Dispersion. Success.The king approaches his temple.It is favourable to cross the great water.Perseverance is favourable.
In its text this sign resembles the sign Tsui, ‘Gathering Together’ (No. 45). There it is a matter of gathering what has been separated, as water gathers in lakes upon the earth. Here it is a matter of dispersing and dissolving the egoism that divides. The sign ‘Dispersion’ shows, so to speak, the way that leads to gathering. That explains the similarity of the texts.
To overcome the divisive egoism of men, religious forces are needed. The common celebration of the great sacrificial feasts and services of worship, which at the same time gave expression to the cohesion and social order of family and state, was the means the great rulers used to move hearts in a shared surge of feeling, through sacred music and the splendour of the ceremonies, and so to bring them to a consciousness of the common origin of all beings; in this way separation was overcome and rigidity dissolved. A further means is working together on great common undertakings, which hold a great goal before the will and, as one moves towards that goal, dissolve everything that divides, just as in a boat crossing a great river all on board must unite in the common work.
But only someone who is himself free of all selfish ulterior motives and abides in justice and constancy is capable of dissolving the hardness of egoism in this way.
The wind passes over the water: the image of dispersion.So the ancient kings made offerings to the Lord and built temples.
In autumn and winter water begins to stiffen and freeze into ice. When the mild airs of spring arrive, the rigidity is loosened, and what was scattered in floes of ice comes together again. So it is with the mind of the people too. Through hardness and selfishness the heart grows rigid, and in this rigidity it cuts itself off from everything else. Egoism and greed isolate men. Therefore a devout emotion must take hold of the human heart. It must be loosened by a holy awe before eternity, which shakes it with an intimation of the one Creator of all beings and unites it through the power of shared feeling in the sacred celebration of worship of the divine.
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 ○.
He brings help with the strength of a horse.
The first tensions and misunderstandings are showing, though nothing has broken yet. Act now, quickly and with vigour, and clear away the mutual distrust while the separation is only just beginning. Early on it can still be dissolved, the way clouds are scattered before storm and rain set in.
Here the point is to overcome the first beginnings of separation before the separation has taken place; to scatter the clouds before storm and rain have set in. In such times, when hidden divergences of mood appear and mutual misunderstandings follow, one must act quickly and with vigour in order to dissolve these misunderstandings and the mutual distrust.
At the time of dispersion he hastens to what supports him.Remorse disappears.
This is the moment when you notice resentment in yourself and a growing distance from others. Loosen that hardening by returning to firm ground: a just, moderate and kindly view of people. Once you regain that unclouded view, what you regret will pass.
When one discovers in oneself the beginnings of estrangement from others, of misanthropy and ill humour, these blockages must be dispersed. One must rouse oneself inwardly and hasten to one’s support. Such a support never lies in hatred, but always in a moderate and just judgement of others, joined with goodwill. When one regains this free view of mankind, and all melancholic ill humour is dispersed, every cause for remorse disappears.
He dissolves his self. No remorse.
Here a task is so great that there is no room left for the self. Deliberately put yourself in the background and turn wholly to the cause that reaches beyond you. Such renunciation is where the strength for great achievements comes from, and there is nothing to regret.
In certain circumstances the work may become so hard that one can no longer think of oneself. One must set one’s own person entirely aside and disperse everything that the self would like to gather around it to keep itself apart. Only on the basis of a great renunciation does one gain the strength for great achievements. One can reach this standpoint by having one’s aim outside oneself, in a great cause.
He breaks away from his following. Supreme good fortune!Dispersion leads to accumulation.This is something ordinary people do not think of.
Working on something that serves the greater whole means breaking away from your familiar circle and from every faction. Set private considerations aside for this task; whoever stands above the factions wins over those who are far off. The step calls for a wide view and so strikes most people as unusual, yet it turns out very well.
When one is working at a task that concerns the great whole, one must set all private friendships aside. Only by standing above the factions does one achieve something decisive. Whoever dares to forgo what is near will win those who are far. But to understand this standpoint one must have a wide view of the connections of life, such as only uncommon people attain.
Like a releasing sweat are his loud cries.Dispersion! A king dwells without blame.
In a time when everything is falling apart, people need a great idea to gather round. It loosens things like the sweat that brings an illness to its turning point. If you carry responsibility, state this shared aim loudly and clearly; that is how misunderstandings are dispelled, and it is no mistake.
In times of general dispersion and separation, a great idea is the point around which recovery takes shape. Just as an illness reaches its crisis in a releasing sweat, so in times of general stagnation a great and compelling idea is a true deliverance. People have something to gather round: a ruling man who can dispel the misunderstandings.
He dissolves his blood.Going away, keeping at a distance, going out is without blame.
The image means dissolving a danger before it brings blood and wounds. Get yourself and your people to safety in good time: leave before the danger arrives, keep clear of one that is already there, and find a way out of one that has already caught you. That is no mistake.
Dissolving one’s blood means dissolving what could bring blood and wounds: avoiding the danger. But the thought expressed here is not that one merely sidesteps difficulties for oneself; it is that one rescues one’s own, helps them to get away before the danger is there, to keep clear of a danger already present, and to find a way out of a danger that has already overtaken them. In this way one does what is right.
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.