What does “At the gate” mean?

[rosada]

I suspect if I poke around here a bit I’ll find someone has already explained what “..at the gate” means but I thought it might be of general interest so I’m just going to post the question here. My own take on it is that there’s a feeling of needing to wait, like people, conditions, needing to gather together, line up or something before moving forward. Like at 4.6 the fool is restricted somehow and must then 5.1 wait outside “the gate” for awhile, or at 13.1 again the gate seems to describe holding back, not wanting to enter the group of wild ones too soon. Insights?

 

[Trojina]

I see it as threshold, in the open, like a doorstep or a garden gate.

13.1 is often an encounter where there is friendliness but a degree of distance so one can easily withdraw (33 as relating). I've experienced this many times as encounters where each keeps a boundary but an open connection still takes place. This is just like, metaphorically and sometimes literally, standing on the doorstep chatting to a neighbour, leaning on a garden gate and chatting to neighbours passing. Both of you are able to withdraw easily from the encounter. It's a beginning of fellowship which does not mean it 'needs to' progress on to anything else, it is as it is. It's open fellowship, others might come along and join.

 

[my_key]

The two examples you have given of 'at the gate' appear at line 1 in the hexagram. According to Wilhelm this line is commenting on matters that are not yet in the field of activity, or not yet active. Aligned with this, Karcher sees line 1 as the place where the spirit attracts a new fate.

So, like Trojina I too see 'at the gate' as being a place of threshold. 'At the gate' specifically, though, is modelled about the beginnings of things at this line and not just any old threshold. It holds sway at the entry point into the hexagram. The gate opens towards many horizons containing many possibilities that have not yet come into full view. Rest assured though, all are gathering in the wings waiting for one to summoned forth into reality.

 

[IrfanK]

A gate is the place where the inside and outside meet. They can keep things out and let things in. You might meet strangers at the gate. You can talk and interact with them, without you having to go outside and without them having to come in.

 

[my_key]

A gate is the place where the inside and outside meet. They can keep things out and let things in. You might meet strangers at the gate. You can talk and interact with them, without you having to go outside and without them having to come in.

The gate can indeed be engaged with all these activities.

While looking a bit deeper it seems that some translations only offer 'at the gate' at hex 13 while hex 5 is seen more as meaning 'waiting in the meadow', waiting in the field' or 'tending towards the suburbs'. Karcher in his own inimitable style offers at 5.1 'attending at the Outskirts Altar'.

So while the gate may be in full swing at hex 13 there is a subtle difference at hex 5 to hex 13: their location and positioning is different. In one there may not even be a gate over which to talk and interact.

Chinese word "jiao" at hex 5.1 - area adjoining a city; while hex 13.1 uses "men" a depiction of a connection from a courtyard to a street. One points to a location of space outside the city the other to a location contained within the city.

Both locations at line 1 are beckoning towards possibilities with which they can be filled when the time is right. Hex 5 focuses on waiting for nourishment, hex 13 perhaps offers the inner organisational opportunities for connecting with that for which you have been waiting.