Following the two founding hexagrams, Zhun marks the true beginning of the Yi Ching; By analogy, speaks of the behaviour to adopt during Beginnings – an essential moment since it contains the seed of all subsequent developments. The Judgement of this hexagram opens with the same terms as those of the Creative and Receptive Impetuses: Fundamentally Favourable and Profitable Tenacity. Their signal of initialising capacities, of deployment, of profit and endurance, and the appreciation focus on the moments where the possibility of finding the starting point of a situation and jump start it is combined with the necessary tenacity to assure its blossoming.

The text then proposes two indications which seem so contradictory that for the longest time they were united in a single phrase. Advising ‘’Not to Act’’ and of ‘’Having where to Go’’ are subjected to two different levels. The contradiction vanishes as soon as one replaces the present moment and considers the whole in longer term according to the goal. When one finds himself in the turmoil of Beginnings, the first initiative to consider is not to yield to the worked-up idea which pushes one to get out of its confusion by a precipitated action. The second is to realise that slowing down does not mean abandoning one’s objective but, rather, one of the safer ways to get closer to it: Pausing to analyse the situation allows one to extract from the appropriate strategy.

At the very beginning of a movement, of any cycle, short, long or mid-term are superimposed in a disconcerting problematic. The solution is to distinguish these cycles and to organize them according to a scale of priority. This foremost hierarchisation, advised by the expression Instituting of Vassals, is the specific response to moments where one is enthusiastic (as in Yu (16). The Great Image clarifies the modality: To be able to distinguish the border line from the centre line, the essential from the the accessory and, therefore, understanding one’s objective.

元 Fundamentally : Mantic modulation underlined by the ideogram meaning: Beginning, Origin, Entirely.

亨 Favourable : Mantic appreciation describing an encompassing atmosphere, a fertile arrangement, a global energetic environment in which the exchanges between Heaven and Earth interweave beneficially.


元 亨 Fundamentally Favourable : Mantic formula suited to the Judgements. It signals a potential full moment, expressing with Yang a capacity to undertake and with Yin the aptitude to see it through.

利 貞 Profitable Tenacity : Mantic formula signalling that the situation, in order to be fruitful, requires a great capacity to endure, to hold consistently without getting tired by the difficulties associated to the moment.

元 亨 利 貞 Fundamentally Favourable Profitable Tenacity : Particular grouping of two mantic formulas which are characteristic to only seven hexagrams : Qian (1), Kun (2), Meng (3), Sui (17), Lin (19), Wu Wang (25) and Ge (49).

勿 用 Not Acting : Specific mantic indication. This injunction, found only twice in a Judgement – here and at Gou-44, does not mean not to do anything but that, in order to get out of Difficult Beginnings, an active intervention would be either premature, as in Qian’s (1) Entry level, or counter current, as here.

有 彼 往 There is where to go : Specific mantic formula whose sense means: To keep focussed without being distracted by the difficulties associated to the moment; To hold on to the objective whatever be the turbulences, the blurries or whatever impedes the forward thrust. Here, the risk holds to the difficulty of conceiving a step back not as quitting, but as a necessary condition for a long term offensive strategy.

勿 用 有 彼 往 No acting There is where to go : Many translators link these two phrases so as to make one reading ‘’Not to Act’’ in ‘’There is Where to Go’’ and, generally it is resumed brutally as ‘’Undertake Nothing’’. As such it confuses Reflection with Abandon. On the other hand, separating the two makes the strategic plan stand out. Not to intervene spontaneously while keeping the objective in one’s foresight invites one to perceive it with a Bird’s Eye View the whole of the situation and even beyond it. Rather than yielding to the craving of acting impulsively, it is preferable to stop and assess. As is shown in the initial phrases of Dun-33 (Retreat) a step back is oftentimes the better way to prepare an attack.

利 建 侯 Instituting of Vassals : Specific expression in two characters whose sense, in the Yi Ching, is to establish an order between levels which tend to mix, meaning to organize them hierarchically according to the importance one allows to them. As soon as is chosen and decided what is Vassal and what is Sovereign, meaning which becomes distinguished what is primal to what is secondary, the strategy to adopt will establish itself on its own, relieving oneself of the risk of getting worked up inefficiently. This hierarchisation is particularly necessary to master the panic proper to Beginnings and the excitement in moments of great Enthusiasm, sole other hexagram where this expression is mentioned : Yu (16).