Reading
Judgment
Opposition. In small matters, good fortune.
When people live in opposition and estrangement, a great common work cannot be carried out. The dispositions diverge too widely. Above all, one must not proceed abruptly, which would only sharpen the opposition; one must limit oneself to gradual effects in small matters. Here good fortune is still to be expected, since the situation is such that opposition does not exclude every understanding.
Opposition, which in general appears as hindrance, also has, as polar opposition within an embracing whole, its good and important functions.
The oppositions between heaven and earth, spirit and nature, man and woman bring forth, through their balancing, the creation and propagation of life. In the visible world of things, opposition makes possible a division into species, through which order comes into the world.
Image
Above the fire, below the lake:
the image of Opposition.
Thus the noble one preserves their individuality even in community.
As the two elements fire and water, even when together, never mix but keep their own nature, so the cultivated person will never, through intercourse and shared interests with differently constituted people, let themself be brought to be common; rather, they will, for all community, always preserve their individuality.
Commentary
The hexagram consists of the upper primary hexagram Li, the flame, which flames upward, and the primary hexagram Tui, the lake, below, which seeps downward. These motions stand in opposition to each other. Furthermore, Li is the second and Tui the youngest daughter. Although they live in the same house, they yet belong to different men, and their will is therefore not common, but directed toward different things.
Changing Lines
Line 1
A nine at the beginning means:
Remorse vanishes.
If you lose your horse, do not run after it.
It will come back of itself.
If you see evil people, guard against mistakes.
Commentary
Even in times of opposition one can so act that one remains free of mistakes, so that remorse vanishes. At the beginning of opposition, one must not want to force unity; one would thereby only achieve the opposite, as a horse moves ever further away when one runs after it. If it is our horse, one can calmly let it run: it comes back of itself. So too a person who belongs to us and, in consequence of a misunderstanding, momentarily moves away from us, comes back of themself if one lets them be. On the other hand, one must be cautious when evil people who do not belong to us press near, also through a misunderstanding. Here it is a matter of avoiding mistakes: not wanting to remove them by force, through which enmity would only arise more surely, but simply tolerating them. They withdraw of themselves.
Line 2
A nine in the second place means:
One meets one's lord in a narrow alley.
No blame.
Commentary
As a result of misunderstandings, it is not possible for people who by their nature belong together to come together in a wholly correct manner. Here a chance meeting under informal circumstances is also acceptable, if only the inner belonging-together is present.
Line 3
A six in the third place means:
One sees the wagon dragged back,
the oxen held fast,
a person's hair and nose cut off.
No good beginning, but a good end.
Commentary
Sometimes it looks as though everything had conspired against one; one sees oneself hindered in progress and held back, one sees oneself insulted and injured (the cutting off of hair and nose was a severe, degrading punishment). But one must not let oneself be thrown off by this; one must, despite these oppositions, hold fast to the person with whom one knows oneself to belong together. Thus, despite the bad beginning, the end will finally be good.
Line 4
A nine in the fourth place means:
Made solitary through opposition,
one meets a like-minded person
with whom one can associate in faithfulness.
Despite the danger, no blame.
Commentary
When one is in a society from which one is separated by an inner opposition, one comes into isolation. But if in such a situation one meets a person who by their whole being originally belongs to one, to whom one can give full trust, then one overcomes all the dangers of isolation. Our will has success, and one becomes free of mistakes.
Line 5
A six in the fifth place means:
Remorse vanishes.
The companion bites through the wrapping.
If one goes to them, how could it be a mistake?
Commentary
One finds a faithful person, whom in the general estrangement one at first fails to recognize. But they bite through the separating wrappings. Here it is now the duty of the one to whom this "companion" shows themself in their true being to go to meet them and work together with them.
Line 6
A nine at the top means:
Made solitary through opposition, one sees one's companion
as a mud-covered pig,
as a wagon full of devils.
First one draws the bow at them,
then one puts the bow aside.
He is no robber; he would woo in due time.
In going, rain falls, then good fortune comes.
Commentary
Here isolation through misunderstandings is conditioned, not by outer conditions, but by inner states. One fails to recognize one's best friends, takes them for unclean like a dirty pig and dangerous like a wagon full of devils. One places oneself in a defensive posture. But finally one recognizes one's error, puts the bow aside, and notices that the other comes with the best intention for close union. Thus the tension is resolved. Union resolves opposition, as the falling rain relieves the sultriness before the storm. All goes well, for opposition, precisely at its height, turns into its opposite.