Etymology of the ideograms Da Xu.26

[confucius]

Etymology of the ideograms Da Xu.26




The first ideogram used to illustrate hexagram twenty-six is one on the most common and one of the simplest. It suggests a Human Being standing on his two feet with his arms spread apart to express the universal symbol for Great, Large, Big…

Being, from the onset, the representation of a thing (pictogram) instead of the representation of an idea has given this ideogram great abstraction values. It has the properties for depicting the Heavens, as the roof of life on Earth, as well as the spiritual Heaven. By adding a horizontal stroke on top of the ideogram Da, it becomes the highest possible limit.

This ideographic filiation will serve as the basis for the idea of largesse, generosity, concerning the notion of Yang and its association with Heaven. In the context of the Yi Jing, considering the ideogram Da (Great) as the primitive denomination of the idea of Yang is approved by its being depicted four times in that scope: Da You.14 (Great Accomplishment), Da Xu.26
( Taming by the Great), Da Guo.28 (Great Excess) and Da Chuang.34 (Great Strength).



The second ideogram describing the idea of hexagram twenty-six 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.

 

[toganm]

...
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:

A great field to feed the cattle, which is in a way accumulation of the energy of the fields; so accumulation, gathering, containing and storing power, amassing, build up, reservoir

Yi Jing is a Da Xu in a way, as it contains, stores the power of words of wisdom (which is accumulation, build up), it is full of resources which can be drawn upon.

 

[lightofreason]

From the universal position we have contractive bonding (mountain in top = discernment, quality control (basic trigram covers qualities of sharing space with another/others)) operating in a context of expansive blending (heaven in lower = perseverence (trigram in general covers issues of blending, wholeness but expanding))

Thus we read "with/from perseverence comes discernment"

Infrastructure is described by analogy to:

111001
100001
--------
011000 - 46, entanglment (get involved etc)

26 shares space with 11 where the focus on mediating, balancing, harmonising, is unconditional, here it is conditional (and so the reference to accumlation of wisdom but a specific form, 'traditional' perspectives etc)

Chris.