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HEXAGRAM 38 – K’uei – Opposition
Above LI THE CLINGING, FLAME
Below TUI THE JOYOUS, LAKE
This hexagram is composed of the trigram
- Li above, i.e., flame, which burns upward, and
- Tui below, i.e., the lake, which seeps downward.
These two movements are in direct contrast.
Furthermore,
- Li is the second daughter and
- Tui the youngest daughter, and
although
they live in the same house
they belong, to different men;
hence their wills
- are not the same
- but are divergently directed.
THE JUDGMENT
OPPOSITION.
In small matters, good fortune.
When people live in
- opposition and
- estrangement
they cannot carry out a great undertaking in common;
their points of view diverge too widely.
In such circumstances
-
one should above all not proceed brusquely,
for that would only increase the existing opposition;
instead,
- one should limit oneself to producing gradual effects in small matters.
Here success can still be expected,
because
the situation is such that
the opposition does not preclude all agreement.
In general,
opposition appears as an obstruction, but when
- it represents polarity within a comprehensive whole,
- it has also its useful and important functions.
The oppositions of
- heaven and earth,
- spirit and nature,
- man and woman,
when reconciled,
bring about the creation and reproduction of life.
In the world of visible things,
the principle of opposites makes possible
the differentiation by categories
through which order is brought into the world.
THE IMAGE
Above, fire,
below, the lake:
The image of OPPOSITION.
Thus amid all fellowship
The superior man retains his individuality.
The two elements, fire and water,
never mingle
but even when in contact
retain their own natures.
So
-
the cultured man is never led into baseness or vulgarity
through intercourse or community of interests with persons of another sort;
regardless of all commingling,
- he will always preserve his individuality.
THE LINES
Six in the third place means:
One sees the wagon dragged back,
The oxen halted.
A man’s hair and nose cut off.
- Not a good beginning,
- but a good end.
Often it seems to a man as though everything were conspiring against him.
He sees himself
- checked and hindered in his progress,
- insulted and
- dishonored.1
However,
- he must not let himself be misled; despite this opposition,
- he must cleave to the man with whom he knows he belongs.
Thus, notwithstanding the bad beginning,
the matter will end well.
0 Six in the fifth place means:
Remorse disappears.
The companion bites his way through the wrappings.
If one goes to him,
How could it be a mistake?
Coming upon a sincere man,
- one fails to recognize him at first because of the general estrangement.
However,
- he bites his way through the wrappings that are causing the separation.
When such a companion thus reveals himself in his true character,
it is one’s duty
- to go to meet him and
- to work with him.
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, the hexagram expresses the strong, creative action of the Deity.
- In relation to the human world, 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: “The clouds pass and the rain does its work, and 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), 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 alters and shapes beings until each attains its true, specific nature, then
it 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 regulate and organize the expressions of love and thereby make them successful. 5
3) The attribute furthering is correlated with justice, which creates the conditions in which each receives that which accords with his being, that which is due him and which constitutes his happiness.
4) The attribute perseverance is correlated with wisdom, which discerns the immutable laws of all that happens and 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,” as laid down in the Book of History (Shu Ching) with the philosophy of the Book of Changes, 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.
