Reading
Judgment
Dispersion. Success.
The king approaches his temple.
It is favorable to cross the great water.
Perseverance furthers.
The hexagram has in its text a similarity to the hexagram Ts'ui, "Gathering Together" (Number 45). There it is a matter of the gathering of the separated, as water gathers in lakes on the earth. Here it is a matter of the scattering and dissolution of separating egoism. The hexagram "Dispersion" shows, as it were, the way that leads to gathering. Hence the similarity of the text is explained.
To overcome the separating egoism of people, religious forces are needed. The common celebration of the great sacrificial festivals and divine services, which at the same time brought the connection and the social articulation of family and state to expression, was the means that the great rulers employed to bring hearts, in common welling of feeling through holy music and splendor of ceremonies, to the consciousness of the common origin of all beings, whereby the separation was overcome, the rigidity dissolved. A further means is working together on great common undertakings, which hold before the will a great goal and, in the direction toward this goal, dissolve all that separates, as in a ship that crosses a great stream, all inmates must unite in the common work.
To such a dissolution of the hardness of egoism, however, only one is capable who is themself, free of all egoistic ulterior thoughts, persevering in justice and constancy.
Image
The wind moves over the water: the image of Dispersion.
Thus the ancient kings sacrificed to the Lord and built temples.
The water begins in autumn and winter to stiffen and freeze into ice. When the mild breezes of spring come, the rigidity resolves, and what was scattered in ice-floes unites again. So it is too with the mind of the people. Through hardness and selfishness the heart stiffens, and in this rigidity it separates itself from all else. Egoism and greed isolate people. Therefore a pious emotion must seize the human heart. It must be loosened in holy shudders of eternity, which shake it through the presentiment of the common Creator of all beings, and unite through the power of community-feelings at the holy celebration of the worship of the divine.
Commentary
The wind, which above moves over the water, scatters it and dissolves it into foam and mist. Therein lies also the thought that the life-energy, when it dams up in the human being (which is suggested by the attribute of the lower hexagram as danger), is again scattered and dissolved through gentleness.
Changing Lines
Line 1
A six at the beginning means:
He brings help with the strength of a horse. Good fortune!
Commentary
Here it is a matter that, before the separation is carried out, the first beginnings of it are overcome; that the clouds are scattered before storm and rain have set in. In such times, when secret deviations of moods appear and mutual misunderstandings are the consequence, one must act quickly and strongly in order to dissolve these misunderstandings and the mutual mistrust.
Line 2
A nine in the second place means:
In dispersion he hastens to his support.
Remorse vanishes.
Commentary
When one discovers in oneself the beginnings of estrangement from others, of misanthropy and ill-humor, then it is a matter of dispersing these stagnations. One must set out inwardly, hasten to one's support. Such a support of the human being lies never in hate, but always in a moderated and just judgment of people, paired with goodwill. If one regains this free view of humanity, through the scattering of all black-biled ill-humor, all occasion for remorse vanishes.
Line 3
A six in the third place means:
He dissolves his ego. No remorse.
Commentary
The work can under certain circumstances become so heavy that one can no longer think of oneself. One must set one's own person wholly aside, disperse everything that the ego would want to gather separatingly around itself. Only on the foundation of a great renunciation does one gain the strength for great accomplishments. By having one's goal outside oneself in a great cause, one can gain this standpoint.
Line 4
A six in the fourth place means:
He loosens himself from his group. Sublime good fortune!
Through dissolution follows accumulation.
That is something the ordinary do not think of.
Commentary
When one works on a task that belongs to the great whole, one must leave all private friendships aside. Only when one stands above parties does one accomplish something decisive. Whoever dares this renunciation of the near will win the distant. But one must have a wide overview of the connections of life, such as only unusual people attain, in order to be able to understand this standpoint.
Line 5
A nine in the fifth place means:
His loud cries are dissolving like sweat.
Dispersion! A king abides without blame.
Commentary
In times of general dissolution and separation, a great thought is the organizing point of recovery. As an illness ends its crisis through loosening sweat, so in times of general stagnation a great, suggestive thought is a true redemption. People have something around which they can gather, a ruling man who can scatter the misunderstandings.
Line 6
A nine at the top means:
He dissolves his blood.
Going away, keeping at a distance, going out is without blame.
Commentary
The dissolving of blood means dissolving what could bring blood and wounds, avoiding the danger. Here, however, not the thought is expressed that one only goes around difficulties for oneself alone, but that one rescues one's own, helps them to go away before the danger is there, to keep at a distance from an already present danger, and to find the way out of a danger that has already seized them. In this way one does the right thing.