Clarity,
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PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
hilary
Administrator
- Joined
- Apr 8, 1970
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The more closely I look at the Image – the Daxiang wing, I mean – the more I think whoever wrote it was a sage.
One tiny example… you know how most of the hexagrams’ Images tell you what the ‘noble one’ would do? And then there are three that tell you about the prince, and seven that tell you about the ancient kings. (I’m sure that if someone looked hard enough, they’d find the reason behind all these choices.) And then there is just one hexagram that does something different:
‘Mountain rests on the earth. Stripping Away.
The heights are generous, and there are tranquil homes below.’
Literally, this just says ‘above thus generous, below tranquil homes’: it uses the simple words for ‘above’ and ‘below’, generally used to describe the positions of the trigrams. Of course, it’s usual to translate this as ’superiors’ or ‘those above’, so we can understand it as social commentary about how a stratified society can function smoothly – but it doesn’t actually mention any people.
Perhaps this is talking about how the ruling class needs to keep the underclass pacified with generosity to avoid social instability, or perhaps it’s talking about the flow of water and minerals from the always-eroding mountain down into the valley. Perhaps (as Wilhelm says in Book III) it’s a picture of how to avoid Stripping Away, or perhaps it’s a picture of how Stripping Away is a constant natural process, and not a disaster after all.
But however you interpret this, this*is the only Image with no human figure to imitate or become. It’s depersonalised: there’s nothing to model yourself on but a landscape – or just relative positions within a landscape. And if you think about it, this makes absolute sense: if you’re undergoing Stripping Away, this is not a time to think about the person you might become, what you aspire to or could grow into. It’s fruitless to have a direction to go, and so that sage who wrote the Image is careful not to suggest a direction. Instead there is just a mountain on the earth, and generosity and tranquility, and ongoing change as a way of being.
One tiny example… you know how most of the hexagrams’ Images tell you what the ‘noble one’ would do? And then there are three that tell you about the prince, and seven that tell you about the ancient kings. (I’m sure that if someone looked hard enough, they’d find the reason behind all these choices.) And then there is just one hexagram that does something different:
‘Mountain rests on the earth. Stripping Away.
The heights are generous, and there are tranquil homes below.’
Literally, this just says ‘above thus generous, below tranquil homes’: it uses the simple words for ‘above’ and ‘below’, generally used to describe the positions of the trigrams. Of course, it’s usual to translate this as ’superiors’ or ‘those above’, so we can understand it as social commentary about how a stratified society can function smoothly – but it doesn’t actually mention any people.
Perhaps this is talking about how the ruling class needs to keep the underclass pacified with generosity to avoid social instability, or perhaps it’s talking about the flow of water and minerals from the always-eroding mountain down into the valley. Perhaps (as Wilhelm says in Book III) it’s a picture of how to avoid Stripping Away, or perhaps it’s a picture of how Stripping Away is a constant natural process, and not a disaster after all.
But however you interpret this, this*is the only Image with no human figure to imitate or become. It’s depersonalised: there’s nothing to model yourself on but a landscape – or just relative positions within a landscape. And if you think about it, this makes absolute sense: if you’re undergoing Stripping Away, this is not a time to think about the person you might become, what you aspire to or could grow into. It’s fruitless to have a direction to go, and so that sage who wrote the Image is careful not to suggest a direction. Instead there is just a mountain on the earth, and generosity and tranquility, and ongoing change as a way of being.