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My question was regarding a person i feel a strong bond with and wish to get to know better but am not sure how to, and the question was, "when i try to forget him you tell me to hold to him and when i hold to him you tell me to forget him, so what should i do? and got Hexagram 40.4 >37.
The word mu, big toe, also means thumb. Because the theme of 40 is letting go or release, and the Zhi Gua is 07, the Militia, I played with an archery theme in my commentary and read this as a fumbled release. Despite one's right to be creative and do one's own thing, there are right and wrong ways to let fly an arrow.
But is the thumb used in archery to hold and release the arrow?
The real big toe, of course, belongs in Line 1, not in Line 4, so a toe would be out of place here.
Patro - I thought I'd add that in understanding contradictory readings (sometimes "positive", sometimes "negative" in regards to the same issue) it might help to see this as confirmation that nothing is set in stone. Everything keeps changing, and our attitude towards any particular outcome seems to have a lot to do with this change. Just as there is no absoluteness or stagnancy in any situation, so there isn't any in the answers you get. It appears we create our own situations and the appropriate solutions for them as we live it.
Hi Everyone,
I have a question regarding the nature of the "big toe" in line 4, Hexagram 40: Deliverance.
Its literal translation seems to be to 'lose' ones existing company to make room for the 'true' companion. This company could translate into other people we spend time with but as i see it, it could also mean the 'company' we keep within ourselves. This company, as i've understood it could mean "fear" etc. that comes about from insecurites or a lack of self-worth within oneself. The 'company' that arises out of the ego-self.
My question was regarding a person i feel a strong bond with and wish to get to know better but am not sure how to, and the question was, "when i try to forget him you tell me to hold to him and when i hold to him you tell me to forget him, so what should i do? and got Hexagram 40.4 >37.
Am i correct in my understanding of the nature of the company in this line?
Any insight will be greatly appreciated.
Let go your hemlock? That doesn't seem to be any clearer than "let go your thumb." What could be the meaning of "let go your hemlock"?
occurrences of toe/toes/big toe in Wilhelm
21.1
22.1
31.1
34.1
40.4
43.1
52.1
40.4 is an anomaly if translated as toe. Bradford discusses the toe/thumb question in a note in his translation. I think 40.4 continues the theme of archery and the character should be translated as 'thumb'.
{My quotes without attached notes...} Svenoccurrences of toe/toes/big toe in Wilhelm
21.1 {Shaughnessys translation: 'feet'}
22.1 { --- 'feet' & 'foot'}
31.1 { --- 'big toe'}
34.1 { --- 'foot' }
40.4 { --- 'hemlock' }
43.1 { --- 'front foot' }
52.1 { --- 'foot' , I Ching... Ballentine books, N.Y. 1996 }
40.4 is an anomaly if translated as toe. Bradford discusses the toe/thumb question in a note in his translation. I think 40.4 continues the theme of archery and the character should be translated as 'thumb'.
Hexagram 40.4 (p 97) is rendered as 'Untangling his hemlock'. The character for 'hemlock' is otherwise unknown in China, though it is used in modern Japanese for the coniferous forest tree known in America as hemlock. The difference between this character and the received text mu 'thumb(s)' or 'toe(s)' is one tiny stroke distinguishing the hand radical from the tree radical. In the manuscript this stroke is smudged. The more obvious basic meaning is 'Loosing his thumbs', which Waley related to archery or to prisoners being mutilated. Why has the modern Japanese 'hemlock' been preferred?
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).