Reading
Judgment
Success. No blame.
Perseverance furthers.
It is favorable to have somewhere to go.
Duration is a condition whose motion does not wear itself out through hindrances. It is not a state of rest; for mere standstill is regression. Duration is rather a motion, closed in itself and therefore continually self-renewing, proceeding according to fixed laws, of an organized, inwardly firmly closed whole, in which every end is followed by a new beginning. The end is reached through motion inward, the inhaling, the systole, the concentration. This motion passes over into a new beginning, in which the motion is directed outward, the exhaling, the diastole, the expansion.
Thus the heavenly bodies have their orbits in the sky and can therefore shine lastingly. The seasons have a firm law of change and transformation and can therefore have lasting effect.
And so too the called one has a lasting meaning in their way, and the world is thereby brought to finished form. From that in which things have their duration, one can recognize the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.
Image
Thunder and wind: the image of Duration.
Thus the noble one stands firm and does not change their direction.
Thunder rolls, and the wind blows. Both are something extremely mobile, so that they are apparently the opposite of duration. But their coming forth and stepping back, their coming and going, follow lasting laws. Thus the self-sufficiency of the noble one does not consist in their being rigid and immovable. They always go with the time and change with it. What is lasting is the firm direction, the inner law of their being, which determines all their actions.
Commentary
The strong hexagram Chen is above; the weak Sun below. This hexagram is the counterpart of the previous one: there, influence; here, union as a lasting condition. The images are thunder and wind, which are likewise phenomena that are lastingly connected. The lower hexagram points to gentleness within; the upper to motion without.
Transferred to social relations, we have here the institution of marriage as the lasting union of the sexes. While in wooing the young man places himself beneath the girl, in marriage, which is represented by the coexistence of the eldest son and eldest daughter, the man is outwardly leading and moving, the woman within gentle and obedient.
Changing Lines
Line 1
A six at the beginning means:
To seek duration too quickly brings misfortune persistently.
Nothing that would further.
Commentary
Something lasting can be created only gradually, through long work and careful reflection. "If you want to compress something, you must first let it properly expand," says Laotse in this sense. Whoever demands too much at once at one time overhurries themself. And because they want too much, they end up accomplishing nothing at all.
Line 2
A nine in the second place means:
Remorse vanishes.
Commentary
The situation is abnormal. The strength of character is greater than the material power at one's disposal. One might fear that one could let oneself be carried away into something that exceeds one's strength. But since it is the time of Duration, one succeeds in mastering the inner strength, so that any excess is avoided and thus the occasion for remorse vanishes.
Line 3
A nine in the third place means:
Whoever does not give duration to their character
will be offered disgrace.
Persistent humiliation.
Commentary
When one is driven about in one's being by moods aroused in the outer world by fear and hope, one loses the inner consistency of character. Such inner inconsistency leads continually to painful experiences. These humiliations often come from a side one had not thought of. They are also not so much effects of the outer world as lawful connections that are triggered by one's own being.
Line 4
A nine in the fourth place means:
There is no game in the field.
Commentary
If one wants to get a shot while hunting, one must begin it in the right way. If one stalks game continually in a place where there is none, one can wait as long as one will, and finds none. Duration in searching does not suffice. What one does not seek in the right way, one does not find.
Line 5
A six in the fifth place means:
Giving duration to one's character through perseverance,
this is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.
Commentary
A woman should follow one man her whole life; the man, however, should hold to what is in any given moment his duty. Were he to orient himself continually by the woman, this would be a fault for him.
Accordingly, for a woman it is quite good to hold conservatively to what is inherited. For the man, on the other hand, he must remain mobile and adaptable and may let himself be determined only by what his duty demands in each case.
Line 6
A six at the top means:
Restlessness as a lasting condition brings misfortune.
Commentary
There are people who are continually in hasty motion, without coming inwardly to rest. Restlessness not only prevents all thoroughness, but becomes directly a danger when it prevails at a decisive place.