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confucius
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The first of the two ideograms used to illustrate hexagram 62 is generally described as portraying a vertical stick being peeled, one that is sharpened. Its common application, the idea of small, is portrayed by its extremities becoming sharper and its sides leaner, a picture illustrated by the chips peeling-away. Although this is the traditional explanation, it does offer a particular point-of-view: what is small is not so in itself but rather following refinements, a polishing-down of something that was once more coarse, bigger. During its historical developments, when small came to be associated and recognized as the emblem of the Yin, this ideogram was explained by insisting on the twin chips as a symbol of parity (a twin pair, another attribute of the Yin).
This semantic skip is recognized and justified, as is the ideology it proposes. The Yin is, as it has always been, considered by its comparison to the Yang and as such in a diminutive way: the Yin chips being figuratively less useful than the sharpened Yang stick. Historically speaking, it is from the period of the Han dynasty (206 b.c to 220 a.d) that this definition by association helped feed the negative idea of the Yin as a subject of the Yang, therefore submitted to it.
This application of the submissive Yin was further reinforce during the Song dynasty (960-1279). That is the dynasty responsible for the imposition of the foot-binding law. This contextual and discriminatory view of the Yin-feminine aspect was henceforth made absolute and translated as such by the first and subsequent translators of the Yi Jing. The discovery of the archaic ideogram depicting Xiao has proven wrong this tendentious interpretation. On the tortoise shells, the symbol used to express small was illustrated with three small vertical strokes of equal size representing seeds. As such the image of Xiao is much clearer. It shows what is small without outside influence, suggesting the specific force of the Yin: the germinating power of multiplicity (three). As such it expresses the virtues of the seeds which the Yin Earth and patience transformed into nourishment.
The second ideogram is assembled with two groups. On the left is the general ideogram for Movement. On the right is a complex group whose explanation is controversial. Its canonical shape reminds us of the shoulder blades used during divination and upon which the original formulas of the Yi Jing were written, ( it has been used to name the counselor of Fu Xi, Nu Wa) and, most particularly, to describe the cupolas (cup-like) centers targeted for the incisions in divination. (We find elsewhere the idea of holes or cracks on a smooth surface composed with this ideogram: the ideogram for Whirlpool or again that for Wok.
From these cupolas destined to receive the branded bronze producing the cracks (which occasionally broke through the bone) may come the predominant meaning of this group: To Go Beyond, To Go Through. All the other possibilities are drawn from this idea of Surpassing; its modern application confirms: this group has been replaced by a character which means both Inch and Pulse, representing the idea of Rhythm, Measure…
Together, then, the composition of the two ideograms illustrating Xiao Guo.62 means: the Great Overtakes the Measure, he does not dominate, he is excessive.
Excess and Taming are the only two notions in the context of the Yi Jing that are described using their Yin virtues, as is seen in Xiao Xu.9 and Xiao Guo.62, and their Yang virtues, as in Ta Xu.26 and Ta Guo.28.
Confucius
This semantic skip is recognized and justified, as is the ideology it proposes. The Yin is, as it has always been, considered by its comparison to the Yang and as such in a diminutive way: the Yin chips being figuratively less useful than the sharpened Yang stick. Historically speaking, it is from the period of the Han dynasty (206 b.c to 220 a.d) that this definition by association helped feed the negative idea of the Yin as a subject of the Yang, therefore submitted to it.
This application of the submissive Yin was further reinforce during the Song dynasty (960-1279). That is the dynasty responsible for the imposition of the foot-binding law. This contextual and discriminatory view of the Yin-feminine aspect was henceforth made absolute and translated as such by the first and subsequent translators of the Yi Jing. The discovery of the archaic ideogram depicting Xiao has proven wrong this tendentious interpretation. On the tortoise shells, the symbol used to express small was illustrated with three small vertical strokes of equal size representing seeds. As such the image of Xiao is much clearer. It shows what is small without outside influence, suggesting the specific force of the Yin: the germinating power of multiplicity (three). As such it expresses the virtues of the seeds which the Yin Earth and patience transformed into nourishment.
The second ideogram is assembled with two groups. On the left is the general ideogram for Movement. On the right is a complex group whose explanation is controversial. Its canonical shape reminds us of the shoulder blades used during divination and upon which the original formulas of the Yi Jing were written, ( it has been used to name the counselor of Fu Xi, Nu Wa) and, most particularly, to describe the cupolas (cup-like) centers targeted for the incisions in divination. (We find elsewhere the idea of holes or cracks on a smooth surface composed with this ideogram: the ideogram for Whirlpool or again that for Wok.
From these cupolas destined to receive the branded bronze producing the cracks (which occasionally broke through the bone) may come the predominant meaning of this group: To Go Beyond, To Go Through. All the other possibilities are drawn from this idea of Surpassing; its modern application confirms: this group has been replaced by a character which means both Inch and Pulse, representing the idea of Rhythm, Measure…
Together, then, the composition of the two ideograms illustrating Xiao Guo.62 means: the Great Overtakes the Measure, he does not dominate, he is excessive.
Excess and Taming are the only two notions in the context of the Yi Jing that are described using their Yin virtues, as is seen in Xiao Xu.9 and Xiao Guo.62, and their Yang virtues, as in Ta Xu.26 and Ta Guo.28.
Confucius