Reading
Judgment
Success in small matters. Perseverance furthers.
At the beginning, good fortune; at the end, disorders.
The transition from the old to the new time has been completed. In principle everything is already regulated. Only in detail can success still be attained. In this it depends, however, that one always preserves the right disposition. Everything goes its course as of itself. This easily seduces one to slacken in one's effort and let things run without attending to detail. But this indifference is the root of all evil. From it arise necessarily phenomena of decay. Here the rule is set up, as things are wont to go in history. But this rule is no unavoidable law. Whoever understands it is able, through unceasing constancy and caution, to avoid its effects.
Image
The water is above the fire:
the image of the state after completion.
Thus the noble one considers misfortune
and arms themself in advance against it.
When the water hangs in the kettle over the fire, both elements stand in relation, and thereby force is generated. (Compare the arising of steam.) But the tension thereby arising commands caution. If the water runs over, the fire is extinguished, and its force-effect is lost. If the heat is too great, the water evaporates and goes into the air. The elements that here stand in relation to one another and thus work force are in themselves hostile to each other. Only the utmost caution can prevent harm. So too there are in life conditions in which all forces are balanced and work together, and therefore apparently everything is in best order. The sage alone recognizes in such times the moments of danger and knows through timely precautions how to ward them off.
Commentary
This hexagram is the development of the hexagram T'ai, Peace (Number 11). The transition from confusion to order is completed, and now in detail also everything is in its place. The strong lines are on the strong, the weak lines are on the weak places. This is a very favorable aspect. Yet it gives cause for reflection. Precisely when perfect equilibrium is reached, every motion can lead to disintegration arising again out of the state of order. The one strong line that has gone up and thus has made the order in detail complete is followed by the others according to their nature, and so suddenly there arises again the hexagram P'i, Standstill (Number 12). Thus the hexagram points to the conditions of a high point that make utmost caution necessary.
Changing Lines
Line 1
A nine at the beginning means:
He brakes his wheels.
He comes with his tail into the water.
No blame.
Commentary
In times after a great transition everything is bent on progress and development and presses forward. But this forward-pressing at the beginning is not good and certainly leads to loss and fall by overshooting the goal. A strong character therefore does not let themself be infected by the general dizziness, but brakes their course in good time. Thus they will not remain wholly untouched by the ominous consequences of the general pressing, but it strikes them only from behind, like a fox that has already crossed the water and only gets its tail into the water, and cannot essentially harm them, since their conduct has hit the right.
Line 2
A six in the second place means:
The woman loses her carriage-curtain.
Do not run after it. On the seventh day you will get it.
Commentary
When a woman rode in a wagon, she had a curtain that hid her from the eyes of the curious. If this curtain got lost, it would have been against good custom to continue driving. Transferred to public life, it means that when one wants to accomplish something, one is not given from the decisive side the trust that one needs, so to speak, for one's personal protection. Precisely in times after completion one can find that the rulers become proud and self-confident and no longer bother to come to meet unknown talents with attention.
From this there now arises, as a rule, careerism. When no trust is brought to one from above, one seeks means and ways to find it and to bring oneself to light. From such unworthy procedure, however, one is dissuaded. "Do not seek for it." Do not throw yourself away on the outer world, but wait calmly and independently form your personal worth. The times change. When the six stages of the hexagram are past, the new era comes. What belongs to one, one cannot lose in the long run. It comes quite of itself to one. One must only be able to wait.
Line 3
A nine in the third place means:
The high ancestor chastises the devil's land.
After three years he overcomes it.
One should not employ petty people.
Commentary
The High Ancestor is the dynastic title of the ruler Wu Ting of the Yin dynasty. After he had ordered the conditions in the empire with a strong hand, he led long colonial wars for the subjugation of the northern border regions inhabited by the Huns, from which invasions continually threatened. The situation depicted is that after times of completion, when a new power has arisen and within everything is in order, with a certain necessity the colonial expansion begins. In this, as a rule, long struggles are to be reckoned with. But in this, a right colonial policy is particularly important. One must not regard the hard-won territories as a provisioning institution for people who have somehow made themselves impossible at home but are still just good enough for the colonies. Thereby one ruins from the start every success. This holds in great as in small; for not only rising states carry on colonial policy. Every aspiring undertaking lies near to the drive toward expansion and the dangers bound up with it.
Line 4
A six in the fourth place means:
The finest clothes turn to rags.
Be cautious the whole day long.
Commentary
In times of cultural flowering there always come from time to time shocks that uncover an inner damage of society and then at first arouse general sensation. But since the general situation is favorable, such damages let themselves be patched over without great difficulty and concealed from the public. Then everything vanishes again from memory, and it looks as though pure peace prevailed. To the thoughtful person, however, such occurrences are earnest hints that they do not neglect. Only thereby can one avert the evil consequences.
Line 5
A nine in the fifth place means:
The neighbor in the east, who slaughters an ox,
does not obtain as much real happiness
as the neighbor in the west with their small offering.
Commentary
Also the religious attitude is influenced by the mood of soul in times after completion. In place of the simple old forms comes in the divine services ever richer elaboration and ever greater outer pomp. But this display of splendor lacks inner earnestness. Human willfulness takes the place of the conscientious observance of the divine will. But while the human being sees what is before the eyes, God looks at the heart. Therefore there does not rest as much blessing on the powerful but cold divine service as rests on a simple, pious offering.
Line 6
A six at the top means:
He comes with his head into the water. Danger.
Commentary
Here at the end, once more a warning is appended. After the crossing over water, one can only come with the head into the water if one frivolously turns again to the water. As long as one strides forward and does not look back, one escapes this danger. But there is something alluring in standing still and looking back on the overcome danger. Such vain self-contemplation, however, brings no good fortune. Thereby one comes into danger, and if one does not yet resolve to stride on unceasingly, one falls a victim to this danger.