Credit Suisse CS under CEO Ulrich Koerner

Credit Suisse CS under CEO Ulrich Koerner

 

Hexagram 46 – Sheng – Pushing Upward

Above    K’UN    THE RECEPTIVE, EARTH

Below    SUN    THE GENTLE, WIND, WOOD

• The lower trigram, Sun, represents wood, and
  
• the upper, K’un, means the earth.
  

Linked with this is the idea that wood in the earth grows upward.

In contrast to the meaning of Chin, PROGRESS (35),

this pushing upward is associated with effort,

just as a plant needs energy for pushing upward through the earth.

That is why this hexagram, although it is connected with success, is associated with effort of the will.

• In PROGRESS the emphasis is on expansion;
  
• PUSHING UPWARD indicates rather a vertical ascent – direct rise
  
  • from obscurity and lowliness
    
  • to power and influence.
    

 

THE JUDGMENT

PUSHING UPWARD

has supreme success.

One must see the great man.

Fear not.

Departure toward the south

Brings good fortune.

The pushing upward of the good elements

• encounters no obstruction and
  
• is therefore accompanied by great success.
  

The pushing upward is made possible

• not by violence
  
• but by modesty and adaptability.
  

Since the individual is borne along by the propitiousness of the time,

he advances.

He must go to see authoritative people.

He need not be afraid to do this, because success is assured.

But

he must set to work, for activity (this is the meaning of “the south”) brings good fortune.

 

THE IMAGE

Within the earth, wood grows: The image of PUSHING UPWARD.

Thus the superior man of devoted character

Heaps up small things

In order to achieve something high and great.

• Adapting itself to obstacles and bending around them,
  

  wood in the earth grows upward without haste and without rest.
  

Thus too

• the superior man
  
  • is devoted in character and
    
  • never pauses in his progress.
    

 

THE LINES

 

Nine in the second place means:

If one is sincere,

It furthers one to bring even a small offering.

No blame.

Here a strong man is presupposed.

It is true that

• he does not fit in with his environment, inasmuch as
  
• he is too brusque and pays too little attention to form.
  

But as

he is upright in character,

• he meets with response, and
  
• his lack of outward form does no harm.
  

Here

• uprightness is the outcome of sound qualities of character,
  

whereas in the corresponding line of the preceding hexagram

• it is the result of innate humility.
  

 

 

MOVING HEXAGRAM

 

 

HEXAGRAM 15 – Ch’ien – Modesty

Above    K´UN    THE RECEPTIVE, EARTH

Below    KEN    KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN

This hexagram is made up of the trigrams

• Ken, Keeping Still, mountain, and
  
• K’un.
  

The mountain is the youngest son of the Creative, the representative of heaven on earth.

It

• dispenses the blessings of heaven, the clouds and rain that gather round its summit, and thereafter
  
• shines forth radiant with heavenly light.
  

This shows

• what modesty is and
  
• how it functions in great and strong men.
  

K’un, the earth, stands above.

Lowliness is a quality of the earth:

this is the very reason why it appears in this hexagram as exalted,

by being placed above the mountain.

This shows how modesty functions in lowly, simple people: they are lifted up by it.

 

THE JUDGEMENT

MODESTY creates success.

The superior man carries things through.

It is the law of heaven

• to make fullness empty and
  
• to make full what is modest;
  

• when the sun is at its zenith,
  
  • it must, according to the law of heaven, turn toward its setting, and
    
• at its nadir
  
  • it rises toward a new dawn.
    

In obedience to the same law,

the moon

• when it is full begins to wane, and
  
• when empty of light it waxes again.
  

This heavenly law works itself out in the fates of men also.

It is the law of earth

• to alter the full and
  
• to contribute to the modest.
  
• High mountains are worn down by the waters, and
  
• the valleys are filled up.
  

It is the law of fate

• to undermine what is full and
  
• to prosper the modest.
  

And men also

• hate fullness and
  
• love the modest.
  

The destinies of men are subject to immutable laws that must fulfill themselves.

But

man has it in his power to shape his fate,

according as his behavior exposes him to the influence of benevolent or of destructive forces.

When

• a man holds a high position and is nevertheless modest,
  
• he shines with the light of wisdom;
  

if

• he is in a lowly position and is modest,
  
• he cannot be passed by.
  

Thus the superior man

• can carry out his work to the end
  
• without boasting of what he has achieved.
  

 

THE IMAGE

Within the earth, a mountain: The image Of MODESTY.

Thus the superior man

• reduces that which is too much, And
  
• augments that which is too little.
  

He

• weighs things and
  
• makes them equal.
  

The wealth of the earth in which a mountain is hidden is not visible to the eye,

because the depths are offset by the height of the mountain.

Thus

high and low complement each other, and

the result is the plain.

Here an effect that it took a long time to achieve,

but that in the end seems easy of accomplishment and self-evident,

is used as the image of modesty.

The superior man does the same thing when he establishes order in the world;

he

• equalizes the extremes that are the source of social discontent and thereby
  
• creates just and equable conditions. 1
  

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