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To change, first tie on your boots

Brad Hatcher points out that 14 out of 64 hexagrams’ first lines mention feet. I wonder whether there isn’t a fifteenth implied at 49.1:

‘For binding use yellow cowhide’

What might you bind with yellow cowhide? It could be a tethered animal, of course, as Rutt suggests. But looking at the fan yao

‘Influence in your big toes’

– I was inspired to go search for information on ancient Chinese footwear. I learned that soldiers strapped hide to their shins for protection even before the Shang dynasty, and that

“In ancient written Chinese, the character for socks has the same radical as that for shoes, which means tanned animal hide. In the ancient script engraved on bone and tortoise shell it depicts a whole animal hide that has been trimmed and stretched out.”

Yes – that’s 革 , the name of Hexagram 49.

“This would indicate that, at the time written Chinese was being formulated, socks and shoes were both related to leather. In ancient times there was, in fact, no distinction between shoes and socks. The ancients would protect their feet by cutting out pieces of animal hide, wrapping them around their feet, and securing them with leather thongs. According to archaeologists, this kind of foot wrapping first appeared in the Old Stone Age.”

The themes I’ve learned to associate with this line include being ‘bound’ to reality, so your revolution is firmly grounded in actual relationships and not just attractive ideas, and being ‘bound’ by your commitments to other people. Now I imagine a foot-soldier binding on his shoes and shinguards, knowing that radical change starts with a long march.

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