Reading
The young fox has nearly crossed the stream.
Yin and Yang are unsettled, fire on top of water—the Yang energy is trapped. Though progress is underway, and success intimated, should you move forward without proper readiness, then advantage may be lost entirely, benefit drowned. The stream not yet crossed, there is still danger—be wary, and do not lose the fire under the waves. Clarify yourself, bide your time, and look to preventing danger. Students of the Way start by refining themselves.
Translation Reference
Judgment
Before Completion. Success.
But if the little fox,
when he has almost completed the crossing,
comes into the water with his tail,
then there is nothing that would further.
The conditions are difficult. The task is great and full of responsibility. It is a matter of nothing less than of leading the world out of confusion back to order. Nevertheless, it is a task that promises success, since a goal is present that is able to unite the diverging forces. Only, one must first go softly and cautiously. One must proceed like an old fox that crosses the ice. In China the caution of the fox when it crosses the ice is proverbial. He listens constantly for the cracking and seeks out carefully and circumspectly the safest places. A young fox, who does not yet know this caution, boldly plunges ahead, and it can then happen that he falls in when he is already almost over the water, and wets his tail. Then naturally all the effort was in vain. Accordingly, in times before completion, consideration and caution are the basic condition of success.
Image
The fire is above the water:
the image of the state before the transition.
Thus the noble one is careful in the differentiation of
things, so that each comes to its place.
When the fire, which of itself strives upward, is above, and the water, whose motion goes downward, is below, then their effects diverge and remain without relation. If one wants to attain an effect, one must first investigate what the nature of the forces in question is and which is the place due them. If one brings the forces into action at the right place, they have the desired effect, and completion is attained. But in order to be able rightly to handle the outer forces, it is necessary above all that one oneself take the right standpoint. For only from there can one work rightly.
Commentary
In this hexagram the time is suggested at which the transition from disorder to order has not yet been completed. The reversal is indeed already prepared, in that all lines of the upper trigram stand in relation to those of the lower. But they are not yet in their place. While the previous hexagram resembles autumn, which forms the transition from summer to winter, this hexagram is like spring, which leads out of the standstill-time of winter into the fruitful time of summer. With this hopeful outlook the Book of Changes closes.
Changing Lines
Line 1: Moving too quickly, the fox tail gets soaked.
Looking to eat the fruit before it is ripe, while Yin and Yang energy is unsettled, having not taken the proper time to prepare yourself to the task, will end in humiliation. Don't let the fire be put out.
Commentary
In times of disorder it is tempting to press forward as quickly as possible in order to accomplish something visible. But this enthusiasm leads to nothing but failure and humiliation, as long as the time has not yet come to work something. In this time it is wise if one spares oneself the disgrace of failure through reserve. (Note the difference of the situation from the first line of the previous hexagram.)
Line 2: Now is the time to drag the carriage wheels.
With firmness and stability in its center, the cart can carry you to good fortune. Remember that when biding time and nurturing strength in secret, the wise appear ignorant, and the expert, inept—at the appropriate time, they can appear reliably. Settle in the unsettled.
Commentary
Here too the time to act has not yet come. But the patience that is needful must not be a sluggish waiting that lives from day to day. That would continually lead to no success. Rather, one must form within oneself the strength that enables one to advance. One must have, as it were, a wagon in order to complete the crossing. But one must still brake it. Patience in the highest sense is checked force. Therefore one must not fall asleep and lose the goal out of sight. If one remains strong and constant in one's resolve, then in the end all goes well.
Line 3: Things not yet mended, the path forward is fraught with danger.
Though the potential advantages of crossing the stream are substantial, proper remedies have not been implemented, and evil paths multiply. Do not vainly imagine yourself settled for the task, relying on good luck and self-aggrandizement. Turn to friends in the Way who can help convert Yin and restore Yang. When unsettled, seek out a good teacher.
Commentary
The time of transition is there. But one does not have the strength to complete the transition. Were one to try to force it, this would be ominous, just because then the collapse would be unavoidable. What then is to be done? One must create a new situation; one must draw on the forces of capable helpers and with them together take the decisive step, cross the great water. Then the completion will become possible.
Line 4: Gather yourself up like an army invading a region of demons; get rid of mundane conditioning, cultivating inner refinement in private. If this takes three years, the rewards will be great, and primordial energy will be restored. It is difficult to be rid of the false, but when completion is settled, your aim and effect is precise.
A nine in the fourth place means:
Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes.
Shock in order to chastise the devil's land.
For three years there are rewards with great realms.
Commentary
Now is the time of struggle. The transition must be completed. One must make oneself wholly strong in one's resolve; this brings good fortune. All misgivings that may rise in one in such serious times of struggle must be silent. A hot battle is at hand, to shake and chastise the devil's land, the powers of disintegration. But the struggle also has its reward. Now is the time to lay foundations of power and rule for the future.
Line 5: The brightness of the superior person manifests.
Ensuring stability, and steadfastness in correctness, the light of the superior person shines, leading away from blame, towards good fortune. The mundane mind is cleared out for the Dao, false brilliance leaves, and true illumination arises. Remain authentically settled, and water supports fire.
Commentary
The victory is won. The power of constancy has not come to shame. All has gone well. All misgivings have been overcome. Success has justified the deed. Anew the light of a noble personality radiates and makes itself felt among people who believe in it and gather around it. The new time, and with it good fortune, is there. And as the sun shines doubly beautiful after the rain, or the forest after a fire greens with heightened freshness from the charred ruins, so the new time stands out from the misery of the old all the more splendidly.
Line 6: Drinking their heady wine, the confident person is immersed again.
Settled brilliance achieved, the confident person now drinks deeply of themself and their good fortune without blame, until the stream overtakes and immerses them again. The overconfident do not know how to submit to proper rules, but if one's faith is not empty, because they have properly minded their affairs, then when instability arises, settlement is not lost again. Do not let the world overtake you by surprise.
Commentary
Before Completion, at the border of the new time, one is together with one's own in full mutual trust and spends the time of waiting at wine. Since the new time stands already immediately before the door, this is no blame. Only one must be intent on the right measure. If one wets one's head in excess, one loses the favorable situation through intemperance.