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Etymology of the ideograms Xiao Xu.9
The first of the two ideograms used to express the ninth hexagram 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 describing the idea of the ninth hexagram is assembled using three characters resting on top of each other. The one at the bottom is a symbol depicting the idea of fields, the fields used for the purpose of keeping live stocks outside. In the middle of the three is found the general symbol used to express the idea of silk and, finally, the topmost symbol is a simplified ideogram meaning roof, a sheltered area, here compressed as is always the case when used in a composition.
The complete group is assembled to illustrate the idea of raising cattle. In China, the domestication of animals is an extension of the rice culture. The group explains that it is wise to apply to larger stock the same management as that used to manage silkworm:
To tame is more subtle than to domesticate.
This taming is closer to the essence of this hexagram, where the objective is to tame and master a natural process, in a certain way take control of it in order to make it prosper.
The hexagram Xiao (small) and the other one found at Xiao Guo.62, as well as its complement-opposite: Ta (great) encountered at Ta Xu.26 and Ta Guo.28 are the notions of the Yi Jing where Yin and Yang possess both virtues.
Xiao, as with all ideograms, can be understood as a noun as well as an adjective. In the one case, taming By the small, insists on the Yin qualities that allow taming; in the other, taming Of the small, insists on the Yang power used to tame the small, that the small is strong enough to tame itself.
Confucius
The first of the two ideograms used to express the ninth hexagram 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 describing the idea of the ninth hexagram is assembled using three characters resting on top of each other. The one at the bottom is a symbol depicting the idea of fields, the fields used for the purpose of keeping live stocks outside. In the middle of the three is found the general symbol used to express the idea of silk and, finally, the topmost symbol is a simplified ideogram meaning roof, a sheltered area, here compressed as is always the case when used in a composition.
The complete group is assembled to illustrate the idea of raising cattle. In China, the domestication of animals is an extension of the rice culture. The group explains that it is wise to apply to larger stock the same management as that used to manage silkworm:
To tame is more subtle than to domesticate.
This taming is closer to the essence of this hexagram, where the objective is to tame and master a natural process, in a certain way take control of it in order to make it prosper.
The hexagram Xiao (small) and the other one found at Xiao Guo.62, as well as its complement-opposite: Ta (great) encountered at Ta Xu.26 and Ta Guo.28 are the notions of the Yi Jing where Yin and Yang possess both virtues.
Xiao, as with all ideograms, can be understood as a noun as well as an adjective. In the one case, taming By the small, insists on the Yin qualities that allow taming; in the other, taming Of the small, insists on the Yang power used to tame the small, that the small is strong enough to tame itself.
Confucius