When qian, heaven, is the inner trigram, it might be realised through…
- the fluency and commitment of water in Hexagram 5
- gradual growth and emergence, in Hexagram 9
- earth’s support without limits, in Hexagram 11
- complete, radiant expression in Hexagram 14
- rock-solid safeguarding in Hexagram 26
Then what?
The remaining two hexagrams with qian inside are 34, Great Vigour – heaven inside thunder – and 43, Deciding – heaven inside the lake. Creative force expressed through swift initiative? and through joyful interaction?
Hexagram 34, Great Vigour
Needless to say, the individual characteristics of any hexagram are always more interesting than whatever formula we might come up with to predict them. And Hexagram 34 does not particularly sound like creative force expressed through Thunder’s swift initiative. As the Zagua says, ‘Great Vigour means stopping.’ Not what we might have expected.
Swift initiative is possible, just not an especially good idea – see 34.1:
‘Vigour in the toes.
Setting out to bring order: pitfall.
There is truth and confidence.’
What works well: constancy, and ritual:
‘Great vigour,
Constancy bears fruit.’
‘Thunder dwells above heaven. Great Vigour.
A noble one treads no path that is without ritual.’
In fact, Hexagram 26 – heaven inside mountain, the trigram for stillness, is a lot more mobile and adventurous.
In trying to understand this, it helps to look at the hexagram as a whole, and not divide it mentally into two trigrams:
You see a block of four solid lines, forging on upward into the open space of two yin lines, with nothing in their way. Hexagrams 11 and 43 are similar: a block of yang lines below, open yin space above. And I find all three of these hexagrams can feel fraught – risky, excessive, too much energy at once.
34’s continuous block of four yang lines joins the power of heaven with the initiative of thunder – like plugging it in to a gigantic battery, transmitting the ultimate energy source straight through. Or indeed like the ram, channelling all his power into his horns.
Since every ram has its hedge, it makes sense for the hexagram to advise steadiness and care. But we can also see this as thunder’s ‘better self’ coming to full expression: not just initiative, not just setting things in motion haphazardly, but action infused with constancy.
Remember constancy, zhen, is originally ‘divination’ – the whole act, seeking the truth, listening, carrying it through into action – and hence a steady adherence to truth. This would be thunder coming in its right season, perfectly timely.
The noble one of the Image 非禮勿履 – ‘with no ritual, does not Tread.’ The word li 禮, ‘ritual’, contains components for ‘ancestral tablet’ and ‘drum’, or perhaps ‘ceremonial vessel’: think of sacred offerings, rather than just of etiquette. Not empty formality, nor yet random hyperactivity, but each step harmonious. (Unless we miss this and get stuck in a hedge…)
Hexagram 43, Deciding
Again, the yang lines of the two trigrams blend into a single block of power – you could imagine Hexagram 43 as an extra-deep lake, the dui trigram with added energy to draw on.
In Hexagram 34, the nature of thunder seemed to be changed, not just energised. What happens to 43’s lake?
‘Deciding, tell it in the king’s chambers.
With truth, call out, there is danger.
Notify your own town.
Fruitless to take up arms;
Fruitful to have a direction to go.’
I think this has both – the energy and the wisdom/ rightness. Certainly it sounds, at once, like a hypercharged dui. Deciding means telling, calling out and notifying:
- tell, 揚, yang, meaning raise up, praise, celebrate, and also make known, broadcast
- call out, 號, hao, meaning to howl, roar, proclaim, call, invoke (ancestors at ritual); scream, implore, lament loudly, wail. Perhaps originally the roar of a tiger.
- notify 告, gao: to tell, make known, announce
This is loud!
But the news brought to the king’s chambers is wise and clear. To have a direction to go is a dui-like quality because it suggests breaking new ground, opening paths. (One meaning of dui is to open a path through the forest.) However, militaristic breaking-open would be be fruitless. Aggression would be dui gone wrong; this will be dui made straight and true. The Decision goes towards, not against; identifying an enemy is no way to define yourself.
What about the Image?
‘Lake above heaven. Deciding.
A noble one distributes riches to reach those below,
He dwells in power and virtue, and also shuns things.’
The picture now is of a great cloud high in the sky. It’s interesting to contrast this with Hexagram 45, lake above the earth, with its precariously-maintained reservoir:
‘Lake higher than the earth. Gathering.
A noble one puts weaponry in good order
And warns against the unexpected.’
Hexagram 43 has no earth banks, no mud – no risk, and no compromise, just clear, fresh rainwater. The lake’s association with exchange translates into an inspired generosity. The noble one gives out riches, or (depending on translation) distributes salaries or blessings.
What he does next varies quite a lot depending on translation: he
居 dwells in, occupies a position, sits; puts away, stocks up
德 de – power, virtue, character
則 but, although (conjunction of contrast) or then, moreover, hence (conjunction of what follows)
忌 – respects, fears respectfully; hates, is averse to.
Other peoples versions of those four words –
Legge: ‘dislikes allowing his gifts to accumulate (undispensed).’
Wilhelm/Baynes: ‘refrains from resting on his virtue.’
(Bradford Hatcher’s ‘Resting on virtue is thereby avoided’ shows how Wilhelm’s understanding is derived from the Chinese.)
Lynn: ‘clarifies what one should be averse to.’ (Schilling has something similar: the noble one ‘regulates prohibitions’.)
Rutt: ‘restraining his powers displeases him.’
Lynn’s translation is based on Wang Bi’s understanding, and his endnotes mention Cheng Yi’s different version:
‘Although Cheng Yi admits that Wang Bi’s interpretation here is possible and makes sense, he himself prefers to gloss ji (averse) as fang (guard against) or fangjin (guard against and prevent). “The noble man who dwells securely in virtue keeps a tight hold on it,. …For if he keeps guard over it and prevents it from slipping away, it will not be dispersed or lost.”‘
All of which adds more information than it does clarity, but hopefully you can see how all those translations are possible…
The idea I was clunkily trying to express with ‘and also shuns things’ is that dwelling in de – occupying it like an official position, taking your seat there – naturally means being removed from everything else. The cloud high in the sky connects with what it rains on – the open sharing of dui – but is unreachably far away from it – the unalterable truth of qian. Generosity without moral compromise; there are no muddy clouds.
This builds on the Oracle text, I think. Distributing the news has become distributing blessings, always with the clear inner strength of qian: with direction, not with weaponry; with moral clarity, ‘this, hence not that’.
