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HEXAGRAM 43 – Kuai – Break-through (Resoluteness)
Above Tui THE JOYOUS, LAKE
Below CH’IEN THE CREATIVE, HEAVEN
This hexagram Signifies
· on the one hand a break-through after a long accumulation of tension, as
o a swollen river breaks through its dikes, or
o in the manner of a cloudburst.
· On the other hand, applied to human conditions, it refers to the time when
o inferior people gradually begin to disappear.
Their influence is on the wane;
as a result of resolute action,
· a change in conditions occurs,
· a break-through.
The hexagram is linked with the third month [April-May].
THE JUDGMENT
BREAK-THROUGH.
One must resolutely make the matter known
At the court of the king.
It must be announced truthfully.
Danger.
· It is necessary to notify one’s own city.
· It does not further to resort to arms.
· It furthers one to undertake something.
· Even if only one inferior man is occupying a ruling position in a city,
o he is able to oppress superior men.
· Even a single passion still lurking in the heart
o has power to obscure reason.
· Passion and
· reason
cannot exist side by side –
therefore
· fight without quarter is necessary
o if the good is to prevail.
In a resolute struggle of the good against evil, there are, however,
definite rules that must not be disregarded,
if it is to succeed.
· First, resolution must be based on a union of
o strength and
o friendliness.
· Second, a compromise with evil is not possible;
o evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited.
o Nor must our own passions and shortcomings be glossed over.
· Third, the struggle must not be carried on directly by force.
o If evil is branded,
§ it thinks of weapons,
and
o if we do it the favor of fighting against it blow for blow,
§ we lose in the end because thus
§ we ourselves get entangled in hatred and passion.
Therefore it is important
1. to begin at home, to be on guard in our own persons against the faults we have branded.
In this way, finding no opponent, the sharp edges of the weapons of evil become dulled.
2. For the same reasons we should not combat our own faults directly.
As long as we wrestle with them, they continue victorious.
3. Finally, the best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good.
THE IMAGE
The lake has risen up to heaven: The image of BREAK-THROUGH.
Thus the superior man
· Dispenses riches downward And
· refrains from resting on his virtue.
When the water of a lake has risen up to heaven,
there is reason to fear a cloudburst.
Taking this as a warning,
the superior man forestalls a violent collapse.
If
· a man were to pile up riches for himself alone, without considering others,
· he would certainly experience a collapse.
For all gathering is followed by dispersion.
Therefore the superior man begins to distribute
while he is accumulating.
In the same way, in developing his character
he
· takes care not to become hardened in obstinacy
but
· to remain receptive to impressions by help of strict and continuous self-examination.
THE LINES
Six at the top means:
No cry.
In the end misfortune comes.
Victory seems to have been achieved.
There remains merely a remnant of the evil resolutely to be eradicated
as the time demands.
Everything looks easy.
Just there, however, lies the danger.
· If we are not on guard,
o evil will succeed in escaping by means of concealment, and
· when it has eluded us
o new misfortunes will develop from the remaining seeds,
for evil does not die easily.
So too in dealing with the evil in one’s own character,
one must go to work with thoroughness.
If out of carelessness anything were to be overlooked,
new evil would arise from it.
MOVING HEXAGRAM
HEXAGRAM 01 – Chien – The Creative
Above THE CREATIVE, HEAVEN
Below THE CREATIVE, HEAVEN
The first hexagram is made up of six unbroken lines.
These unbroken lines stand for the primal power, which is
· light giving,
· active,
· strong, and
· of the spirit.
The hexagram
· is consistently strong, in character,
and since it is without weakness,
· its essence is power or energy.
Its image is heaven.
Its energy
· is represented as unrestricted by any fixed conditions in space and
· is therefore conceived of as motion.
Time is regarded as the basis of this motion.
Thus the hexagram includes also
· the power of time and
· the power of persisting in time, that is, duration.
The power represented by the hexagram is to be interpreted in a dual sense – in terms
· of its action on the universe and
· of its action on the world of men.
· In relation to the universe,
o the hexagram expresses the strong, creative action of the Deity.
· In relation to the human world,
o it denotes the creative action of the holy man or sage, of the ruler or leader of men, who through his power awakens and develops their higher nature. 1
THE JUDGMENT
THE CREATIVE works sublime success,
Furthering through perseverance. 2
According to the original meaning, the attributes (sublimity, potentiality of success, power to further, perseverance) are paired.
When an individual draws this oracle,
it means
· that success come to him from the primal depths of the universe and
· that everything depends upon his seeking his happiness and that of others in one way only, that is, by perseverance in what is right.
The specific meanings of the four attributes became the subject of speculation at an early date.
The Chinese word here rendered by “sublime” means literally
· “head,”
· “origin,”
· “great.”
This is why Confucius says in explaining it:
“Great indeed is the generating power of the Creative;
all beings owe their beginning to it.
This power permeates all heaven. 3
For this attribute inheres in the other three as well.
The beginning of all things lies still in the beyond in the form of ideas that have yet to become real.
But
the Creative furthermore has power to lend form to these archetypes of ideas.
· This is indicated in the word success, and
· the process is represented by an image from nature:
o “The clouds pass and the rain does its work, and
o all individual beings flow into their forms.” 4
Applied to the human world,
these attributes show the great man the way to notable success:
“Because he sees with great clarity causes and effects, he
· completes the six steps at the right time and
· mounts toward heaven on them at the right time, as though of six dragons.”
The six steps are the six different positions given in the hexagram, which are represented later by the dragon symbol.
Here it is shown that the way to success lies in
· apprehending understanding and
· giving actuality to the way of the universe (Tao),
o which, as a law running, through end and beginning, brings about all phenomena in time.
Thus
each step attained forthwith becomes a preparation for the next.
Time is no longer a hindrance
but
the means of making actual what is potential.
The act of creation having found expression in the two attributes –
· sublimity and
· success,
the work of conservation is shown to be
a continuous
· actualization and
· differentiation
of form.
This is expressed in the two terms
· “furthering” (literally, “creating that which accords with the nature of a given being”) and
· “persevering” (literally, “correct and firm”).
· “The course of the Creative
o alters and shapes beings until each attains its true, specific nature,
then
· it
o keeps them in conformity with the Great Harmony.
Thus does it show itself to further through perseverance.”
In relation to the human sphere,
this shows how the great man brings
· peace and
· security
to the world through his activity in creating order:
“He towers high above the multitude of beings, and
all lands are united in peace.”
Another line of speculation goes still further in separating the words
· “sublime,”
· “success,”
· “furthering”
· “perseverance,”
and parallels them with the four cardinal virtues in humanity.
1)To sublimity, which, as the fundamental principle, embraces all the other attributes,
· it links love.
2) To the attribute success
· are linked the mores, which
o regulate and organize the expressions of love and thereby
o make them successful. 5
3) The attribute furthering
· is correlated with justice, which creates the conditions in which each receives
o that which accords with his being,
o that which is due him and
o which constitutes his happiness.
4) The attribute perseverance
· is correlated with wisdom, which
o discerns the immutable laws of all that happens and
o can therefore bring about enduring conditions.
These speculations, already broached in the commentary called Wen Yen, 6 later formed the bridge connecting
· the philosophy of the “five stages (elements) of change,”
o as laid down in the Book of History (Shu Ching) with
· the philosophy of the Book of Changes,
o which is based solely on the polarity of positive and negative principles.
In the course of time this combination of the two systems of thought opened the way for an increasingly intricate number symbolism. 7
THE IMAGE
The movement of heaven is full of power.
Thus
the superior man makes himself
· strong and
· untiring.
Since there is only one heaven,
the doubling of the trigram Ch’ien, of which heaven is the image, indicates the movement of heaven.
· One complete revolution of heaven makes a day, and
· the repetition of the trigram means that each day is followed by another.
This creates the idea of time.
Since it is the same heaven moving with untiring power,
there is also created the idea of duration both in and beyond time,
a movement that
· never stops nor
· slackens,
just as
one day follows another in an unending course.
This duration in time is the image of the power inherent in the Creative.
With this image as a model,
the sage learns how best to develop himself
so that
his influence may endure.
He must make himself strong in every way,
by consciously casting out all that is
· inferior and
· degrading.
Thus
he attains that tirelessness,
which depends upon consciously limiting the fields of his activity.
