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46, line 3. any thoughts?

bamboo

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This line puzzles me.

Some interpretations seem to take the dismal view: an empty city where there is nothing to be found, no one to engage with. a ghost town. It reminds me of 32.4: no game in the field

Other interpretations view it as easy progress, progress so easy that one could doubt its significance.

I suppose it could contain elements of both.
I would be interested in hearing of experiences with this line
 

Sparhawk

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The first thing to note is that there are no omens attached to the line, just an observation. So, the empty city, for all intents and purposes, shows that for you, you appear to be heading into unexplored territory. What you do or find, what you make of the experience, is pretty much up to you. You will populate that city.

But you can also see if from the perspective of the trigrams: Sun moves upwards and the third line is the one closest to Kun. Kun is the 'empty city' and Sun, the Penetrating, is pushing into it. Kun symbolizes emptiness, but is the emptiness of a womb, always ready to host and produce. Following that thought, I don't believe it is a typical 3rd position where the average shows precariousness or right down negativity, so we should not assume so based on the position and the lack of clear pointers. Another clue to potential "goodness" is given by the conversion of Sun into Dui in the first step into the 'empty city'.
 

bamboo

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thanks Luis. I like that. and upon exploring the Ritsema/karcher big text, I read "empty yet fertile space" and "without a place to doubt". So it isn't like the no game in the field,instead maybe a place to explore potential.
 

yamabushi

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But it can also mean that it is unknown for how long good fortune will last.
You can win the city easily, but what then? It can easily become a trap..
 

Sparhawk

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But it can also mean that it is unknown for how long good fortune will last.
You can win the city easily, but what then? It can easily become a trap..

For me it is one of those things that has a lot to do with the attitude you present in such a situation. History is awash with examples of self-fulfilling prophecies, good and bad. 46.3 isn't prophesying anything but stating a course; it is open-ended. Good or bad fortune are not mentioned. It doesn't even talk about "winning the city". It talks about going into it. At that stage, it is a clean slate. The reason I mentioned potential goodness, if properly handled, is because the next step not only shows 'good fortune' but also converts the containing trigram into Dui. Felicity or despair are yours to find.

Another hint is given in what 46.3 ends up in: 7. It is the "populating" stage of 46.3 and calls for a strong leader or risk being overrun.

You trip or avoid your own traps...
 

yamabushi

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For me it is one of those things that has a lot to do with the attitude you present in such a situation. History is awash with examples of self-fulfilling prophecies, good and bad. 46.3 isn't prophesying anything but stating a course; it is open-ended. Good or bad fortune are not mentioned. It doesn't even talk about "winning the city". It talks about going into it. At that stage, it is a clean slate. The reason I mentioned potential goodness, if properly handled, is because the next step not only shows 'good fortune' but also converts the containing trigram into Dui. Felicity or despair are yours to find.

Another hint is given in what 46.3 ends up in: 7. It is the "populating" stage of 46.3 and calls for a strong leader or risk being overrun.

You trip or avoid your own traps...

I also think that 46.3 has multi meanings. It can also mean that somebody s advancing will be very easy, whithout resistance, but it can also mean that there is nothing or nobody or nothing value to find at your target...

btw sparhawk, you told once that text is just a mirror, real answer is coming from inside :)
 

tuckchang

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For your reference:

Success usually means the right action at the right position and with the right timing.

46.3 is in the era of rise (i.e. the right timing) and at the position right to it (i.e. Yang at the Yang position; Yang tends to move and 46.3 is at the position for marching upward to the upper trigram, the higher rank) but without access to 46.5, the great man who offers rise, signifying that which it needs is a right action: 1) to move to position 4, next to but below 46.5, and become the representative line of Zhen: to move, and Kan: peril as well as sincerity & trust, while the hexagram appears in the form of 40: the alleviation of draught, crisis, etc., or 2) to move to position 6 on the top of 46.5 and become the representative line of Gen: stop, while the hexagram appears in the form of 4: ignorance which needs enlightenment.

Be aware that 46 is a) tenderness and wood (Xun) rise with time (i.e. the seasons), to be submissive (like Yin line of Xun prostrated) in following the trend of the times (Kun), and 2) 46.2, a Yang line (large and strong), correlates with 46.5, a Yin line (small and tender) and rises along the route of the principle of moderation. The inner hexagram of 46 is 54, which suggests the philosophical willingness of being an assistant, i.e. with no ambition to be the leader; and the changed hexagram of 46 is 25, signifying one should not think or do what is undeserved (after having lifted to a higher position).

Regards
Tuck :bows:
www.iching123.com
 

Sparhawk

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btw sparhawk, you told once that text is just a mirror, real answer is coming from inside :)

Sure, let me quote myself in my first post:

So, the empty city, for all intents and purposes, shows that for you, you appear to be heading into unexplored territory. What you do or find, what you make of the experience, is pretty much up to you. You will populate that city.

:)
 

bradford

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I used 46.3 casting a spell for work once, looking for a big opportunity. Within two weeks I was helping to design a new town for 2000 people out on an empty mountain mesa. After a couple of years, getting paid, the project just evaporated and the city vanished back into emptiness.
 

mythili

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Brad, Do you think, then, that if both lines 3 and 5 change in 46, that the initial foray into the empty city (could this be a starting from scratch kind of thing) would end up with something substantial and long lasting? Or alternatively, that Line 5 after Line 3 (without the intervening Line 4, which is the allegiance line, I think), would mean that the city vanished, and now you take steps to move away and in a different direction?
 
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Sparhawk

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I used 46.3 casting a spell for work once, looking for a big opportunity. Within two weeks I was helping to design a new town for 2000 people out on an empty mountain mesa. After a couple of years, getting paid, the project just evaporated and the city vanished back into emptiness.

Great example! IMHO.
 

bradford

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Brad, Do you think, then, that if both lines 3 and 5 change in 46, that the initial foray into the empty city (could this be a starting from scratch kind of thing) would end up with something substantial and long lasting? Or alternatively, that Line 5 after Line 3 (without the intervening Line 4, which is the allegiance line, I think), would mean that the city vanished, and now you take steps to move away and in a different direction?

With the Zhi Gua being 29 the steps you take might demand care and caution if you want to move in another direction. You might be getting yourself into something that isn't that easy to get out of. The opportunity it presents might still be there but there's a chance of temporarily losing sight of it while it makes other demands on your attention.
 

heylise

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It seems Sheng is the name of a sacrifice to the Big Dipper, the huge clockhand which turns around the northpole and 'regulates the seasons'. See Harmen's article
My idea about that: live the moment, developing itself step by step, like a plant, growing around obstacles. Its goal is not somewhere out there, but in itself, an inherent plan. It is one with what it becomes. Being in the groove of the 'time'.

When Wu, the son of king Wen, conquered the Shang, he found the city empty when he entered it (with his army, the line changes to 7). The tyrant had killed himself. I think it means: whatever you find, use it and go on from that point. Don't stick to plans, adapt them to every change.

It was not good to carry the corpse of King Wen along (7.3): not the right time to try to impress, no need anymore.
 

alyce21

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I'm a few days late on this thread but just in case by thoughts might be useful to someone...

I was mulling over this line a few days ago. I was wanting to swap my nursing placement with someone, I wanted to swap it from late may to the holiday period in july. We had until the end of the week to swap with someone if we wished and inform the coordinator. And they hadn't replied to me, so I had assumed they wouldn't reply in time. I asked the i ching if this girl would be able to swap with me, and got this line. It kind of perplexed me, at the time I thought it meant that there wasn't much point in asking them anyway. Anyway, within about 24 hrs she replied and we both emailed the convenor and successfully swapped placements quite easily. So I think in retrospect it was saying something like there's no need to really worry about this at all.

Sometimes I think it means ‘nothing to worry about here, you can do what you want with ease’, and other times I think the words empty city must be important. I think the advice with 46.3 is something like ‘do you really even need to do this?’. I think when it’s a case of worrying about something, it could mean that pushing upwards with the mindset of ‘I have to do something here!’ is unnessary because there is nothing to worry about, the problem that you think is there is nonexistent. By all means you can continue to worry and push forward with what you think you should do, but then you’ll likely find that the problem doesn’t really exist anyway. So it seems like there’s no barriers to you acting or saying something, or whatever it is that you’re doing, but that’s because the problem isn’t real, things were actually ok all along. So then you’re probably going to be left feeling like ‘oh, well ok then why did I bother expending all that energy?’ which is a bit of an empty feeling. In the case of the above reading, there is an element of there not really being much point anyway. There isn’t going to be much difference from switching placements anyway, only in the time and possibly ward but the hospital will be the same. I just thought maybe having my placement in the holidays would mean I could focus on exams and do really well in everything else and then fully focus on placement. So I suppose that might figure into the meaning of 46.3 here as well. But I tend to see it more talking about how worrying about something is unnecessary because there is no problem despite you thinking there is, as that's how it's come up in other readings for me. I suppose context will influence the meaning of the line but this is how I've come across it.
 

bamboo

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very interesting, Alyce. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts
 

bradford

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It might be mentioned here that the Zhi Gua is 07, The Militia (Army) and that Fan Yao 07.3 carries the suggestion of trouble, even fatal error. To my mind, the suggestion of this line is that the primary "enemy" here is our own incompetence and even that the casualties might come from "friendly fire." With the suggestion of military action, the approach to the empty city might be one of seizure, though circumspect, or carpe diem, which brings us back to that south-facing boldness that's one of the main themes of 46.
 

Yasmin

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I just wanted to share an aha about 46.3 and how it helped me clarify how to avoid the 8 month misfortune in 19UC. Both talk about a period of easy, hopeful progress.

In a context of 19UC, I was pondering how to avoid the 8 month misfortune. Asking for advice, I cast 46.2.3.5>8. You are starting in a somewhat weak position, but a sincere show of good will can help (46.2), obstacles may be lifted, but pushing ahead too easily (46.3) can lead to a short lived progress and/or an empty outcome. Whatever initial progress you think you have made, you need really work through this a step at a time (46.5). Your ability to lead that process (8) will have an impact on the outcome, whether this project gels or not. But you can only do your best. If others are too slow in responding, the opportunity will evaporate.

For me, in that particular situation, it clarified how to avoid the 8 month misfortune in 19UC: there may be a period of easy hopeful progress ahead, but don't get carried away, take things a step at a time. Do your best, then Submit to Fate.
 
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rodaki

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Just came across this thread and it so happens I 've recently had a couple of good-to-share instances of 46.3. I think the best way to summarize them is that they showed someone taking the easy way out, the empty, unencumbered way out (even pretending that themselves, or others, were literally out of town, to avoid contact) which is quite fine if one has their priorities really, truly, greatly STRAIGHT . . then again, in both of those examples, it turned out later that there was some 7.3 latent in taking that way in the first place.

For me, if I get this line as advice, I'll be looking really hard to find whether the path I'm taking is honestly aligned with what I want or if it's just a tactic that could come back to bite me in the . . eer, to haunt me ;)
 

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