Pinduoduo PDD under CEO Lei Chen

Pinduoduo PDD under CEO Lei Chen

 

 

HEXAGRAM 39 – Chien – Obstruction

Above     K’AN    THE ABYSMAL, WATER

Below     KEN    KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN

The hexagram pictures

• a dangerous abyss lying before us and
  
• a steep, inaccessible mountain rising behind us.
  

We are surrounded by obstacles;

at the same time,

since the mountain has the attribute of keeping still,

there is implicit a hint as to how we can extricate ourselves.

The hexagram represents obstructions

that appear in the course of time but

that can and should be overcome.

Therefore

all the instruction given is directed to overcoming them.

 

THE JUDGMENT

OBSTRUCCION.

• The southwest furthers.
  
• The northeast does not further.
  
• It furthers one to see the great man.
  

Perseverance brings good fortune.

The southwest is the region of retreat,

the northeast that of advance.

Here

an individual is confronted by obstacles that

cannot be overcome directly.

In such a situation

it is wise

• to pause in view of the danger and
  
• to retreat.
  

However,

this is merely a preparation for overcoming the obstructions.

One must

• join forces with friends of like mind and
  
• put himself under the leadership of a man equal to the situation:
  

then

one will succeed in removing the obstacles.

This requires the will to persevere

just when

one apparently must do something that leads away from his goal.

This unswerving inner purpose brings good fortune in the end.

An obstruction that lasts only for a time is useful for self-development.

This is the value of adversity.

 

THE IMAGE

Water on the mountain:

The image of OBSTRUCTION.

Thus the superior man

• turns his attention to himself And
  
• molds his character.
  

Difficulties and obstructions throw a man back upon himself.

While

• the inferior man
  
  • seeks to put the blame on other persons, bewailing his fate,
    
• the superior man
  
  • seeks the error within himself, and
    

  through this introspection
  

• the external obstacle becomes for him an occasion for
  
  • inner enrichment and
    
  • education.
    

 

THE LINES

 

Six in the second place means:

The king’s servant is beset by obstruction upon obstruction,

But it is not his own fault.

Ordinarily it is best to

• go around an obstacle and
  
• try to overcome it along the line of least resistance.
  

But there is one instance in which

a man must go out to meet the trouble,

even though difficulty piles upon difficulty:

this is

• when the path of duty leads directly to it – in other words,
  
• when he
  
  • cannot act of his own volition but
    
  • is duty bound to go and seek out danger in the service of a higher cause.
    

Then

he may do it without compunction,

because it is not through any fault of his that

he is putting himself in this difficult situation.

 

 

MOVING HEXAGRAM

 

 

HEXAGRAM 48 – Ching – The Well

Above    K’AN    THE ABYSMAL, WATER

Below    SUN    THE GENTLE, WIND, WOOD

• Wood is below,
  
• water above.
  

The wood goes down into the earth to bring up water.

The image derives from the pole-and-bucket well of ancient China.

1. The wood represents
   

• not the buckets, which in ancient times were made of clay,
  
• but rather the wooden poles by which the water is hauled up from the well.
  

1. The image also refers to the world of plants,
   

• which lift water out of the earth by means of their fibers.
  

1. The well from which water is drawn conveys the further idea of
   

• an inexhaustible dispensing of nourishment.
  

 

THE JUDGMENT

THE WELL.

• The town may be changed,
  
• But the well cannot be changed.
  

It

• neither decreases
  
• nor increases.
  

They come and go and draw from the well.

If

• one gets down almost to the water And
  
• the rope does not go all the way, Or
  
• the jug breaks,
  

it brings misfortune.

In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved,

• partly for the sake of more favorable location,
  
• partly because of a change in dynasties.
  

• The style of architecture changed in the course of centuries,
  
• but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient times to this day.
  

Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which,

• evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs,
  
• is independent of all political forms.
  

• Political structures change, as do nations,
  

but

• the life of man with its needs remains eternally the same –
  

  this cannot be changed.
  

• Life is also inexhaustible.
  
  • It grows neither less nor more;
    
  • it exists for one and for all.
    

• The generations come and go, and
  
• all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance.
  

However, there are

two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or social organization of mankind.

• We must go down to the very foundations of life.
  

  For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied
  

  is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made.
  

• Carelessness – by which the jug is broken – is also disastrous.
  

  If for instance
  

  the military defense of a state is carried to such excess that
  

  it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated,
  

  this is a breaking of the jug.
  

This hexagram applies also to the individual.

However men may differ in disposition and in education,

• the foundations of human nature are the same in everyone. And
  
• every human being can draw in the course of his education from
  

  the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man’s nature.
  

But here likewise two dangers threaten:

a man

• may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and
  
• remain fixed in conventions partial education of this sort is as bad as none or
  

he

• may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.
  

 

THE IMAGE

Water over wood: the image of THE WELL.

Thus the superior man

• encourages the people at their work, And
  
• exhorts them to help one another.
  

• The trigram Sun, wood, is below, and
  
• the trigram K’an, water, is above it.
  

Wood sucks water upward.

Just as

• wood as an organism imitates the action of the well,
  

  which benefits all parts of the plant,
  

• the superior man organizes human society,
  

  so that, as in a plant organism,
  

  its parts cooperate for the benefit of the whole.
  

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