60. Chich / Limitation

[rosada]

60.
Create number and measure,
And examine the nature of virtue and correct conduct.

In other words...

60,
Count your blessings.

 

[rodaki]

oh, was just reading Richmonds' 60 . . think it fits like a glove . .

Trigram Image:
The emerging energy in the image of Tui is more of a hope than a flow yet in the outer world there is a torrent of activity (Chen) which is contemplated, held ata at distance, by our identity (Ken), so there is little flow taken up by our inner being (K'an). So from a very small emerging energy flow we have a great surge or release of energy; the surge exhauts itself and we contemplate this because it leaves our inner being with little energy. The common name of the hexagram is 'limitation' and it is about providing this limitation so that a small resource is not squandered

The pattern:
when there is little at the beginning
its activities rise to a peak, its limit,
and fall to a dangerous low

For humans:
He limits the flow.
Seeing scarcity he spreads resources
to avoid famine.

In nature:
In poor soil the seed germinates,
rises up but does not mature.

In forms we make:
When the little is gathered up by the few
the rest are empty.
This is dangerous.

(hope your limitations end soon Rosada!)

 

[ginnie]

Where limitation is applied in the creation of institutions, property is not encroached upon, and people are not harmed.

Regulation involves specifying the nitty gritty, getting down to brass tacks, and thinking of what could go wrong.

For example, if a student pays for one lesson, it is important that the teacher or the school make it very clear how many minutes are in one lesson. Is the lesson one hour? Or is it only 55 minutes? If both the student and the teacher become enthusiastic about the subject, forgetting to look at the clock, and the lesson goes on for two hours, does the student then owe the teacher more money? Or is that still considered to be one lesson?

People feel better when all this has been spelled out at the beginning. People have trouble with what should be just ordinary, every day exchanges, and so that's one reason why we need regulation.

For example, if I am waiting for my girlfriend but she isn't on time, how many minutes shall I wait before I leave? 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes?

One of my friends always gives herself a window of opportunity, saying, "I'll meet you between 3 and 3:30" -- thus leaving herself a full half hour leeway, because she has a tendency to be late. It first I found this irritating. I thought it meant she expected me to wait from the beginning of that window while she might not show up until the end. Well, yes, there are people like this. We find ourselves always needing to tip toe around these rules they are always making up for us. But I think they probably have good intentions and are also trying to create order.

Regulation takes a lot of speaking up to clarify things. It does require that a considerable effort be put into specifying and clarifying.

In love situations, when one person cannot stop thinking about the other, the Yi will often give H60. This means the person needs to put a time limit on wasting her time this way.

The same thing goes for worriers. Maybe we could set an alarm clock and only worry for one hour, tops. After that: Go do something else. That's H60. Put a limit on it. We don't like having to be like this and wish it weren't necessary. It takes effort to get used to this.

 

[rosada]

Do we have a song for 60. yet?

How about something just like
"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"?:

When you're stuck in the rain in Bakersfield,
Thinking of getting a tattoo..

Okay, I'm being a bore. On to the first line..

 

[rosada]

The lines

60.1
Nine at the beginning means:
Not going out of the door and the courtyard
Is without blame.

Often a man who would like to undertake something finds himself confronted by insurmountable limitations. Then he must know where to stop. If he rightly understands this and does not go beyond the limits set for him, he accumulates an energy that enables him, when the proper time comes, to act with great force. Discretion is of prime importance in preparing the way for momentous things. Concerning this, Confucius says:

Where disorder develops, words are the first steps. If the prince is not discreet, he loses his servant. If the servant is not discreet, he loses his life. If germinating things are not handled with discretion, the perfecting of them is impeded. Therefore the superior man is careful to maintain silence and does not go forth.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

60.1

Nine at the beginning:

a) Not going out the door and the courtyard
Is without blame.

b) "Not going out the door and the court yard" is a sign that one knows what is open and what is closed.

This line stands at the very beginning. Ken, the nuclear trigram above, means gate, and we are still far away from it; we are not yet concerned with the outer double gate, but only with the inner single door. We see locked doors ahead and therefore hold back. Not going out of door and courtyard indicates DISCRETION, essential in beginning any work that is to succeed.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

Noting that 60.1 changes to 29. The Abysmal:

29.
If you are sincere, you have success in your heart,
And whatever you do succeeds.

The superior man walks in lasting virtue
And carries out the business of teaching.

 

[ginnie]

In the case of 60.1 > 29, we are advised to stay home and not go out because there's a real danger or threat out there.

The hard part, for me, is figuring out what is the nature of the danger that threatens. It's not always so easy to figure that out.

 

[rosada]

Maybe this is where reading the Fan Yao can be helpful. The Fan Yao of 60.1 is 29.1:

Repetition of the Abysmal.
In the abyss one falls into a pit.
Misfortune.

By growing used to what is dangerous, a man can easily allow it to become part of him. He is familiar with it and grows used to evil. With this he has lost the right way, and misfortune is the natural result.
-Wilhelm

29.1
Remove the mote from thine own eye.
(or something like that. Bible)

These ideas suggest to me that we have gotten used to some bad habit and we need to recognize and change it before going any further. We might have success in our hearts and thus can go out in the world and be a role model for success (29), but if along with success we also have negativity in our inner self we will also be a role model for that and be recreating negativity too. Thus the importance of knowing thyself, knowing one's limits, not ignoring our weaknesses. In our case with the car a lot of things had been allowed to go wrong with it before it finally completely stopped running. Now we are held back until all these various evils have been discovered and repaired. Which should be this afternoon folks!!!

Here at onlineclarity it seems to me that the various windstorms are also quieting down about now. Perhaps with 60.2 folks who have stayed off line will feel to come back and start posting again. Hope so!
Rosada

 

[rodaki]

Richmond's comments on 60.1

Line 1 goes yin-life force shows more change
In this tao outer activity is not fed sufficiently to keep up its flow. Here in this line, inner activity increases, but it is still necessary to conserve this and not to let it flow outwards without restraint. We have to provide our own restraint in this tao where our outer reality will take all that we can give and more, draining our source

this made me think of what Ginnie had mentioned before

set an alarm clock and only worry for one hour, tops. After that: Go do something else. That's H60. Put a limit on it.

perhaps shut out of the door the temptation of falling into the same old pit, the sooner the better

 

[my_key]

60.1 - Go placidly amidst the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.
I read this on a church wall many years ago .........

Mike

 

[fkegan]

60.1 - Go placidly amidst the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.
I read this on a church wall many years ago .........

Mike

The common myth is that the Desiderata poem was found in a Baltimore church in 1692 and is centuries old, of unknown origin. Desiderata was in fact written around 1920 (although some say as early as 1906), and certainly copyrighted in 1927, by lawyer Max Ehrmann (1872-1945) based in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Desiderata myth began after Reverend Frederick Kates reproduced the Desiderata poem in a collection of inspirational works for his congregation in 1959 on church notepaper, headed: 'The Old St Paul's Church, Baltimore, AD 1692' (the year the church was founded). Copies of the Desiderata page were circulated among friends, and the myth grew, accelerated particularly when a copy of the erroneously attributed Desiderata was found at the bedside of deceased Democratic politician Aidlai Stevenson in 1965.

Whatever the history of Desiderata, the Ehrmann's prose is inspirational, and offers a simple positive credo for life.


desiderata - by max ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Hi Mike,

That is the entire poem and its mythology. I liked Adlai Stevenson, he came up with the original Spaceship Earth quote in a speech to the UN.

As to hex 60 first line, it refers to changes to the hexagram of natural limitation of flowing water within local topography by expressing and exhausting that original transition from flowing water to natural lake. The result of such a change is that the water returns to flowing. The advice given for this line is to resist that change. In the timing of the natural quiet adjustment to situation, the change that would upset that quiet is probably not a good one (especially for an Imperial bureaucrat where any such change could be occasion to blame you for the upset).

For us nowadays, with a bit more freedom of action and less dire consequences for personal accountability, this line indicates that things are upsetting what had been a natural lull in ongoing action. Thus the advice that it is OK to stay home or at least you may thus avoid blame for getting caught up in the new adventures disturbing the peace of the moment. However, if you are looking for a new adventure then this moving line would indicate that such a wave is indeed at your doorstep and if you want to surf it to glory it would be an opportunity.

The nice innovation of the Chou Yi is that it offers objective process descriptions rather than just the Yes/No answers of the Shang oracle bones.

Frank

 

[rosada]

60.2
Nine in the second place means:
Not going out of the gate and courtyard brings misfortune.

When the time for action has come, the moment must be seized quickly. Just as water first collects in a lake without flowing out, yet is certain to find an outlet when the lake is full, so it is in the life of man. It is a good thing to hesitate so long as the time for action has not come, but no longer. Once the obstacles have been removed, anxious hesitation is a mistake that is bound to bring disaster, because one misses one's opportunity.

-Wilhelm

 

[ginnie]

Isolation

This is also the line for people who stay in their own room so long they get a little weird from isolation, you know.

 

[rosada]

LOL, Ginnie! Yes I think so.Being in that motel room was starting to feel like a padded cell. I noticed that when we finally did leave it wasn't that the VW bus was in perfect order, there are still some things that are gonna need a tune up, but we just decided, "This is it, we're out of here!" So it was an Inner Feeling that caused us to decide we'd reached the point of Galling Limitation and that it was better to move on.
r.

 

[my_key]

Hi Mike,

That is the entire poem and its mythology. I liked Adlai Stevenson, he came up with the original Spaceship Earth quote in a speech to the UN.

As to hex 60 first line, it refers to changes to the hexagram of natural limitation of flowing water within local topography by expressing and exhausting that original transition from flowing water to natural lake. The result of such a change is that the water returns to flowing. The advice given for this line is to resist that change. In the timing of the natural quiet adjustment to situation, the change that would upset that quiet is probably not a good one (especially for an Imperial bureaucrat where any such change could be occasion to blame you for the upset).

For us nowadays, with a bit more freedom of action and less dire consequences for personal accountability, this line indicates that things are upsetting what had been a natural lull in ongoing action. Thus the advice that it is OK to stay home or at least you may thus avoid blame for getting caught up in the new adventures disturbing the peace of the moment. However, if you are looking for a new adventure then this moving line would indicate that such a wave is indeed at your doorstep and if you want to surf it to glory it would be an opportunity.

The nice innovation of the Chou Yi is that it offers objective process descriptions rather than just the Yes/No answers of the Shang oracle bones.

Frank

Hi Frank
Thanks for the post on Desiderata, it is one of my favourite poems. I have a book of Max Ehrmann collected poems and he was quite a far sighted man, well ahead of his time.

I was going to add a wink to the end of my post, but it looks like I forgot to click the icon. Never mind - many a slip and all that.......

We are still in the realms of the 59 /60 transition at 60.1 and I came across Karcher's take in his Myths book which is along the lines of 59 is dispersion of the Bright Presence and 60 is stilling it. Very much agreeing with your take at 60.1 that you can still the Bright Presence by avoiding it or jumping on the roller coaster and letting it blow itself out.
Mike

 

[fkegan]

Hi Frank
Thanks for the post on Desiderata, it is one of my favourite poems. I have a book of Max Ehrmann collected poems and he was quite a far sighted man, well ahead of his time.

I was going to add a wink to the end of my post, but it looks like I forgot to click the icon. Never mind - many a slip and all that.......

We are still in the realms of the 59 /60 transition at 60.1 and I came across Karcher's take in his Myths book which is along the lines of 59 is dispersion of the Bright Presence and 60 is stilling it. Very much agreeing with your take at 60.1 that you can still the Bright Presence by avoiding it or jumping on the roller coaster and letting it blow itself out.
Mike

Hi Mike,

I will try to make sense of your post.... Not sure what you are agreeing with about hex 60.1. My comment noted that the roots of the lake were expressing and exhausting themselves, thus allowing flow to continue its fall toward the sea which then offers the choice to stay with the rest of the lake or surf this new flow.

Hi All,
Moving on to hex 60.2 Here it is the entire structure of this current timing that is expressing and exhausting itself turning the self-contained lake toward hex 3 the beginning of a new project. At this change, not leaving the private realm and working upon this new project would be misfortunate.

The difference here is that it isn't the external or transitional (line 1) that has changed. Rather that situation remains the same, what is changing is what is happening with the building water of the lake (line 2). When the whole lake is being changed, you had better get up, out and adapt to this major disruption. In modern engineering terms, this would be a major change in your local lake that requires a diversion channel or ideally a hydro-electric dam to make these alterations the beginning of a positive development before they become a serious natural disaster. One way or another, the water flow is overwhelming the local topography limits and if you don't create a proper outlet for this change it will flood your current situation.

Frank

 

[rosada]

Nine in the second place:

a) Not going out of the gate and courtyard brings misfortune.

b)"Not going out of the gate and the courtyard brings misfortune," because one misses the crucial moment.

Here the situation is different. Before us are two divided lines imaging an open double courtyard gate. It is now high time to go forth and not to hold back selfishly with the hoarded provisions ( the nuclear trigram Chen, which begins with this line indicates movement, therefore hesitation brings misfortune).
-Wilhelm

 

[meng]

For me, lines 1 and 2 are about Ti Ming, not about doing or don'ting. Again using the music metaphor, playing the right note at the wrong time just ain't right.

 

[fkegan]

As personal counsel in your oracle, it is easy to see line 1 as 'OK to not get involved' and line 2 as ' not OK to not move forward now.' And then the oracle answer with both line 1 and 2 moving becomes a problem.

From a structure and process perspective, each line has its own narrative that can easily be combined. Line 1moving deals with changes in the roots or fundamentals of this current situation which offers new opportunities that could be tempting. Relating to those temptations is the focus of the counsel. Line 2 moving deals with the whole local structure in flux that requires new action since just staying with what was won't work anymore.

When both line 1 and line 2 change, hex 60.1,2 >> 8 everything is in flux, the lake has vanished and the flowing water is loose. Not necessarily flooding, but no connection any longer to the image of containment by the local topography. The overall result of such an oracle would be counsel to let go of thinking of the situation as contained at all and move on to a fresh beginning.

The concrete nature example would be a winter lake formed by ice clogging some of the streams emptying the area. As spring thaws the ice, first there would be perhaps a new stream open up while the lake in general remains. Then the ice blocking all the streams would start melting and change to spring runoff is first starting and then in full swing as the ice now disappears and what had been a winter lake is now back to its being just streams flowing.

Frank

 

[my_key]

60.2 - Strike while the iron is hot. It's OK to wait for it to heat up to the right temperature, but when it's hot, it's hot and you just gotta strike with it.

 

[fkegan]

60.2 - Strike while the iron is hot. It's OK to wait for it to heat up to the right temperature, but when it's hot, it's hot and you just gotta strike with it.

Hi Mike,

Actually, its the hot iron that gets struck between the hammer and the anvil. In iron working the piece being worked has to be heated until it is just plastic enough to be shaped (and not so hot as to melt into a puddle) and then struck just right to form what the blacksmith is working to make.

The metaphor overall works. hex 60.2 >> 3 where hex 3 is all about that first stroke to make the plan of the project a reality. There is a natural balance in hex 60, limitation fits the current reality like a hand in a glove. When the second line moves it represents the current structure or skeleton is expressing and exhausting itself. This is a change of structure that moves that balance of the current configuration toward the beginning of a new set of possibilities. Opportunity is at hand, the game is afoot. Since the current balance is already in flux and changing, trying to wait awhile, expecting things to stay as they are longer, will be a major problem.

Line 1 doesn't refer to this same situation. In blacksmith terms, it isn't waiting for the iron to heat in the forge. It would be selecting a piece of ironwork that you no longer need as it is and deciding to rework it. Line 1 is an opportunity to change the current balance of forces or natural limitation, that could also be left as it is.

Frank

 

[meng]

Coming from three generations of wrought iron craftsmen, I have to say, I think the line 1 and 2 analogy is very interesting.

 

[my_key]

Coming from three generations of wrought iron craftsmen, I have to say, I think the line 1 and 2 analogy is very interesting.

And there's me thinking I'm the only Metallurgist around these parts.

Frank - There is certainly an element of knowing and being at the right temperature for the forgemaster general to really go to town. In my post I'm trying to say - Too hot is not hot, being at the right temperature is hot.

60.1 - Interesting about the rework concept - some more cud chewing required by me here.Can you expand a bit or help me with my current thinking.
However at the moment this one looks to me more like trying to strike when the iron is too hot, (or perhaps too cold), and becoming stuck (or unstuck even). By knowing and taking due notice of the rules of the process, the limitations of the right temperature range to work within and not going outside that range, then there is nothing wrong with waiting until the temperature is right and not hammering before.

Mike

 

[fkegan]

Hi Mike,

My own background is mostly history of technology class with a materials science prof who had me doing ancient lost wax bronze work while he proved alchemy techniques were assay methods since ancient gold was all processed from lead deposits (since golden fleece became myth) and my astral twin was making titanium alloy 10-20 points harder than the best Soviet results.

Symbolism is not literal or concrete. One has to concentrate upon the process of analogy. Hex 60 is about the natural balance between a situation and the elements or details in that situation. Flowing water forming a lake in some local low spot in the topography is one example. A piece of ironwork is another once it is completed.

The moving lines represent ways that one hexagram or timing changes. As they change they no longer result in the original hexagram, they become the resultant.

Sounds pretty obvious, but apparently, folks who look to translation of the words get all confused. Hilary has written that hex 32, translated with the ideogram as meaning lasting must always represent a lasting-ness even the moving lines. The other view is that hex 32 is about how celestial bodies move in constant orbits, so they are a model of a smooth stone in a sling. In moving lines, this is a change like loosing the sling and the stone doesn't stay lasting or cycling or orbiting. These lines speak of trying to maintain "lasting" with this line moving will bring misfortune. Within the context of the stone and the sling that is clear. Isolated to the Chinese text you have to write a long commentary.

Returning to your example and metaphor:

60.1 - Interesting about the rework concept - some more cud chewing required by me here.Can you expand a bit or help me with my current thinking.
However at the moment this one looks to me more like trying to strike when the iron is too hot, (or perhaps too cold), and becoming stuck (or unstuck even). By knowing and taking due notice of the rules of the process, the limitations of the right temperature range to work within and not going outside that range, then there is nothing wrong with waiting until the temperature is right and not hammering before.

First and foremost, line 1 and line 2 are separate and independent. It is not that line 1 is about beginning to work the iron, so its OK to wait for it to heat. It is its own entire situation. It is the balance of hex 60 where that balance is changing. The change is at the roots not the whole structure (line 2). The focus upon the roots or beginning of this balance is being challenged. Therefore, in terms of iron working, it is a perfectly good finished product that it is solely your choice whether you leave it alone or decide to throw it back on the forge and change it all about.

Line 2 is the legs, skeleton or local structure. When this Yang line changes there no longer is any finished wrought iron to leave alone. This is the situation of the iron on the forge where you either work it at the right time in the right way or lose everything, since leaving well enough alone is no longer an option.

When both line 1 and line 2 are moving, not that unusual for an oracle result, folks get confused reading the word-based commentary. In terms of metal work this would be where the entire metal piece, perhaps an alloy, has been dissolved in acid. Now it is not your choice to do something (hex 29 is abstract, water flowing and you can let it go by), and it is no longer just a matter of knowing when to start your new project (hex 3). Both the water is still flowing over the local topography, but there is no containment. It is a step back in timing or result. So, it would be a piece of metal alloy or plated metal dissolved in acid that you would need to start from scratch to make into a new metal piece or re-plate without any inherent connection to the original work.

Each changing line is its own little world of process or flux and each combination of moving lines builds out of that its own different process. That is part of the wonder of the elegant symbolism of these hexagram line structures. Each piece is absolute and independent, yet they build together always into the total structure. It is like in number: 7 is always 7. However, 6+1 or 5+2 or 3+4 are each different ways to get there and along the way they take totally independent paths. Yet when they are all done adding together--oh, my, its final destination is that same 7.

The game of craps was originally a Pythagorean number experiment with their computer (we call them dice cubes) where you had to be able to establish a number as a sum and then get back to that sum by a different path. 2,3,11, 12 couldn't do that, 7 had so many ways and was a mystical number. So 2,3,12 were losers and 11 couldn't go on but was special. Eleven-ness had its perqs. Perhaps, on the dice it is a single periphery of 10 with a centered dot as well.

Hope that helps with your thinking. It's all about symbolic flexibility. And what rules must be obeyed absolutely and what results are open to any context. Once a context or metaphor is chosen, then it must be seen in terms of the template of the symbolism.
Metal work is a balance between flowing material and a particular pattern imposed.

If that balance changes it begins as an option in your mind, then as a real change in the condition of the material. Perhaps that may help. This hexagram is never about just some material reality, whether a placid lake or metal work. It is about the symbolic balance between human energies and external situations. It is after all the 10th hexagram of the set beginning with hex 51 the Divine power of the Thunderbolt. So, hex 60 is about healing after being thunderstruck. The individual lines describe how that healing becomes part of some further process. It may well be difficult to fit all 6 lines into a metal work metaphor. Hex 60 isn't a forge, it is the balance of dynamics and situation that makes a stable reality.

Frank

 

[rosada]

60.3

Six in the third place means:
He who knows no limitation
Will have cause to lament.
No blame.

If an individual is bent only on pleasures and enjoyment, it is easy for him to lose his sense of the limits that are necessary.
If he gives himself over to extravagance, he will have to suffer the consequences, with the accompanying regret. He must not seek to lay the blame on others. Only when we realize that our mistakes are of our own making will such disagreeable experiences free us of error.
-Wilhelm

 

[my_key]

Frank
A wonderfully detailed post - thank you for sharing.

I couldn't find a metalwork theme here so back basics:
60.3 - Recognise that you have total responsibility for all that happens to you. if you are not naturally responsible then don't beat yourself up when things go off the rails. Remember though if you keep doing the same things you'll keep getting the same results.

Just had a metalwork thought - If you keep picking the hot metal up without a glove or tongs you'll keep burning your hand. Don't go beating up on yourself or anyone else every time you burn your hand.

Mike

 

[rosada]

I note that Hilary has had to edit one of Willowfox's posts. Seems like an example of 60.3
rosada

 

[rosada]

60.3

Six in the third place:

a) He who knows no limitation will have cause to lament. No blame.

b) Lament over neglect of limitation - who is to blame for this?

This six in the third place is weak and stands at the top of the trigram Tui, joyousness; it therefore neglects necessary limitation. The trigram Tui means mouth, the nuclear trigram Chen means fear, and K'an means mourning, hence the idea of lament. But one has oneself to blame for this result.
-Wilhelm.

 

[charly]

60.3
...
He who knows no limitation
Will have cause to lament.
No blame.

Rosada:

I'm affraid I'm coming too late here, but worse is never:

chinese, pinyin, usual menings, W/B:

不 bu4: not / no / [HE WHO KNOWS] NO
節 jie2: section / segment / to economize / to save / temperate / LIMITATION
若 ruo4: to seem / like / as / if / [omitted]
則 ze2: contrast with previous clause / norm / rule / to follow / then / [WILL HAVE] CAUSE
嗟 jie1: sigh / alas! / lamentation / TO LAMENT
若 ruo4: to seem / like / as / if / [omitted]
无 wu2: without / not / no / avoid / NO
咎 jiu4: blame / to blame / mistake / BLAME

I wonder what happened with the word omitted twice. And of course whit the interpolated clause HE WHO KNOWS, from where did it come?

The problem with putting a pronoun in a sentence that lacks of it is that the range of meaning gets narrowed.

What if 節若 jie2 ruo4 meant TEMPERATELY and 嗟若 jie1 ruo4 SORROWFULLY?

→ 1ST. 節 jie2 becomes TEMPERANCE
→ 2ND. 則 ze2 turns in CONTRAST instead of RESULT
→ 3RD. a riddle appears in the last part of the sentence.

Temporary rendition:

DO NOT TEMPERATELY FOLLOW
do not follow without commitment
do not be moderate

BUT
instead of it


SORROWFULLY
better with a feeling of sorrow than without feelings (1)

NO BLAME
no wrong
​

Say, TEMPERANCE BUT NOT IDIFFERENCE.

Yours,

Charly

________________________
(1) «Como el perro / que privado de amo y de querencia / prefiere el puntapié a la indiferencia» (Leopoldo Lugones)