above Li, the Clinging, fire · below Kan, the Abysmal, water
This is the moment just before the goal, when you are not yet across. The little fox has almost crossed the water and gets its tail wet at the last. Think of the old fox that walks warily over the ice, listening for the cracking and picking out the safest spots. With deliberation and caution it succeeds; in his words, they are ‘the basic condition of success’. Take the last stretch as carefully as the first, check what is still missing, and bring each force to its proper place. Going boldly at it just before the end would be the mistake.
What is still missing on the last stretch, and where are you too careless?
The sign indicates the time when the transition from disorder to order has not yet been completed. The change has indeed been prepared, inasmuch as all the lines of the upper trigram stand in relation to those of the lower. But they are not yet in their places. While the preceding sign resembles autumn, which forms the transition from summer to winter, this sign is like spring, which leads out of winter’s time of standstill into the fruitful time of summer. With this hopeful prospect the Book of Changes comes to a close.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Before Completion. Success.But if the little fox,when he has almost completed the crossing,gets his tail in the water,there is nothing that would be favourable.
The circumstances are difficult. The task is great and carries much responsibility. It is a matter of nothing less than leading the world out of confusion back into order. Yet it is a task that promises success, since there is a goal capable of uniting the forces that are pulling apart. Only one must at first proceed quietly and warily. One must go about it like an old fox crossing the ice. In China the caution of the fox when it walks over ice is proverbial. He listens constantly for the cracking and carefully and circumspectly picks out the safest spots. A young fox that does not yet know this caution goes boldly ahead, and then it may happen that he falls in when he is almost across the water, and gets his tail wet. Then, of course, all the effort was in vain. Accordingly, in times before completion, deliberation and caution are the basic condition of success.
Fire is above water:the image of the state before the crossing.Thus the noble one is careful in distinguishing things, so that each comes to its proper place.
When fire, which in any case strives upwards, is above, and water, whose movement is downwards, is below, their effects move apart and remain unrelated. If one wishes to achieve an effect, one must first find out what the nature of the forces in question is and what place is proper to them. If the forces are brought into play in the right place, they have the desired effect, and completion is attained. But in order to handle the outer forces rightly, it is above all necessary that one should oneself take up the right standpoint. For only from there can one work rightly.
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 gets his tail in the water.Humiliating.
In unsettled times it is tempting to push forward and quickly achieve something visible. As long as the time is not ripe, that eagerness ends in failure and humiliation. Hold back wisely and spare yourself the embarrassment of a failure.
In times of disorder it is tempting to push forward as quickly as possible in order to accomplish something visible. But this enthusiasm leads to nothing but failure and humiliation as long as the time to achieve anything has not yet come. At such a time it is wise to spare oneself the disgrace of failure by holding back. (Note how the situation differs from that of the first line of the preceding sign.)
He puts a brake on his wheels.Perseverance brings good fortune.
The time to act is still to come, and the waiting must not turn into idle drifting from one day to the next. Build up the strength that will carry you forward later, and keep it reined in for now; patience in this sense is ‘strength held in check’. Keep the goal in sight, because if you stay constant, it turns out well in the end.
Here too the time for action has not yet come. But the patience that is needed must not be an idle waiting that lives from one day to the next. That would never lead to success in the long run. Instead one must develop within oneself the strength that enables one to advance. One must, as it were, have a carriage with which to make the crossing. But one must still keep it braked. Patience in the highest sense is strength held in check. Therefore one must not fall asleep and lose sight of the goal. If one remains strong and constant in one’s resolve, all goes well in the end.
Before completion, attack brings misfortune.It is favourable to cross the great water.
The moment of transition has come, yet your own strength is not enough to complete it. Trying to force it by attack turns out badly. Create a new situation: bring in capable helpers and take the decisive step together with them; then what you cannot manage alone becomes possible.
The time of transition has come. But one lacks the strength to complete the transition. If one tried to force it, that would bring disaster, precisely because collapse would then be unavoidable. But what is to be done? One must create a new situation; one must draw on the strength of capable helpers and, together with them, take the decisive step: cross the great water. Then completion will become possible.
Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears.Shaking, to chastise the Devil’s Land.For three years there are great realms as rewards.
Now is the time to struggle; the transition has to be made. Be wholly firm in your resolve and silence every misgiving; the forces of decay must be pushed back decisively. The effort turns out well, and what you regret will pass; now you lay the foundations for the future.
Now is the time of struggle. The transition must be accomplished. One must make oneself wholly strong in one’s resolve; that brings good fortune. All misgivings that may arise in one in such grave times of struggle must fall silent. A fierce fight is needed to shake and chastise the Devil’s Land, the powers of decay. But the struggle has its reward as well. Now is the time to lay the foundations of power and rule for the future.
Perseverance brings good fortune. No remorse.The light of the noble one is true.Good fortune!
Victory is won, constancy has proved itself, and every misgiving has been overcome. An honest person shines again, and others gather round. Stand by what you have done; it turns out well, and like the sun after rain the new stands out all the brighter against the old.
Victory has been won. The power of constancy has not been put to shame. All has gone well. All misgivings have been overcome. Success has justified the deed. Once again the light of a noble personality shines out and prevails among people who believe in it and gather round it. The new time has come, and with it good fortune. And just as the sun shines twice as beautifully after rain, or a forest grows green again with fresh vigour out of the charred ruins after a fire, so the new time stands out all the more brilliantly against the misery of the old.
In true confidence wine is drunk.No blame. But if one wets one’s head,then in truth one loses it.
On the threshold of a new beginning, you sit with your own people in full trust and pass the waiting time over wine; that is no mistake. Join in the celebration, but in moderation. Overdo it in high spirits and you throw away the favourable situation that is already within reach.
Before completion, on the threshold of the new time, one is together with one’s own people in full mutual trust and spends the time of waiting over wine. Since the new time is already at the very door, there is no blame in this. Only one must be mindful of the right measure. If in high spirits one pours the wine over one’s head, one loses the favourable situation through excess.
Note: Just as the sign ‘After Completion’ presents the gradual transition from the time of ascent, by way of the height of culture, to the time of standstill, so the sign ‘Before Completion’ presents the transition from chaos to order. This sign stands at the end of the Book of Changes. It points out that in every end lies a new beginning. Thus it gives people hope. The Book of Changes is a book of the future.
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.