Prosperity and Smoothness?

[IntegralFreedom]

I everyone, this is my first post here. I practice I Ching Acupuncture and am slowly exploring the depths of this wonderful book.We are in Wood season at the moment (Solar Calendar) and I have been studying #57 Gua - Proceeding humbly. I am puzzled by what creates Prosperity and Smoothness in the Guas.I am aware that Prosperity and Smoothness relate to Heng, and I suspect that the word 'Steadfast' or 'Favourable' within the decision hint at some relationship between Yuan, heng, Li, Zhen, but I have no idea what this might be. I am also wondering if there is a particular arrangement of the Firm and Yielding lines that creates prosperity or not?In the 6 Gua sequence from Abundance (#55) to Restriction (#60) we see this#55 - Prosperous and Smooth#56 - Little prosperity and smoothness - Steadfast (Zhen)#57 - Little prosperity and smoothness - Favourable (Li)#58 - Prosperous and Smooth#59 - Prosperous and Smooth#60 - Prosperous and SmoothSo what is it about #56 & 57 that present with 'LITTLE'?Any help gratefully receivedthanksPaul

 

[moss elk]

Hi,

Welcome to Clarity.
The hexagram names and verbiage you are using are unusual.

What is the source book you are referencing?

 

[hilary]

Moss Elk - this sounds like Alfred Huang's Complete I Ching - a solid one, very good at making the traditional understanding (with plenty about line relationships) available for use in readings. What he says about history and especially etymology should be taken with a large pinch of salt, however.

'Prosperous and smooth' translates heng, 'Favorable and beneficial' are li and 'steadfast and upright' are zhen. If the appearance of these words corresponds to a particular configuration of lines, no-one has discovered it yet - and the same goes for 'littleness'. We can only speculate on the hexagram as a whole.

'Small heng' isn't negative in the way it might be read in English ('not a whole lot of prosperity') - it does just mean a small amount. Or possibly that small people or small actions, being small, would prosper better here - though that's not how I'd take it.

Bear in mind that heng originally meant an offering made and received (see Language of Change << subtle plug), and you get the sense that heng means success, prosperity and smoothness because there is energy flowing freely between humans and spirits: offerings received and enjoyed by the spirits; efforts made are in harmony with the time. (The thinking was that not every offering would necessarily be enjoyed.)

So a small heng might mean a smaller amount of energy in circulation. Smaller offerings - smaller efforts, smaller achievements. What you do works out, but it isn't grand or splendid.

I think this idea fits with both 56 and 57. 56, because the traveller is on his own and cannot do great things in the stopping-places along his route; 57 because it is gentle and subtle and maybe barely noticeable.

 

[bradford]

I did a pretty extensive statistical study looking for correlations between various kind of prognostications (good fortune, etc) and structural configurations. If there were any, they would show up when graphed on the 8x8 binary grid. But I couldn't find any. I did find a few dimensions that showed up there, but nothing to do with prognostications. I think they are comments on the meaning of the text instead, and I disagree with the theory (Shchutskii and others) that the "mantic formulae" are independent layers of text. They are integral to the overall images and metaphors. There are a few cases where all that survives of a line text is a mantic formula (like "no blame" at 40.1, in a Hexagram about forgiveness)