Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
bruce_g said:Why is it fortunate that an older man marries a young woman in line 2, but it seems vain for the older woman to marry a young man in line 5?
trojan said:I think I go with option a, that she is too old to bear children. I only say this because I find this line tends to indicate situations where theres too little too late of something to make any impact on a situation. Something can't be renewed or restored, nothing new can be born out of the situation but it can continue awhile and be enjoyed. Especially if the ridgepole holds up
lightofreason said:if we take the PAIR of 2 and 5, the focus is on issues of containment/control.
Given that background so the old man can contain/control the young woman (father figure etc) but the old woman may have issues in trying to control the wandering eye of the young man - the male being 'singleminded' and so only thinks of one thing all of the time! (implicit in this is the traditional female being dualminded - devoted to another/other as compared to devoted to self that comes with being singleminded.)
28 covers both literal excess as it does figurative in the form of going the extra distance for someone/something unconditionally (its pair 44 is more particular in this excess in its focus on persuasion/seducation)
The line positions cover the 7ness and 8ness of 28. Thus the 7ness of 28 is XOR 28 with 07 to give a change to line 2 and so establishing uniformity is expressed through 07 by analogy to 31 and so a focus on cooperative enticement (hex 31).
For the 08ness (passive attraction of the king/court as the source of control) we have the expression of 32 and so a focus on issues of commitment (well covered in the concerns of the old female with the young male!)
The 29ness of 28 covers control/containment issues overall of 28 and that is described by analogy to characteristics of 62 where containment/control is in the form of exaggerating (excess) of 'traditions' as attempts to keep things together, to, maintain overall loyalty to the 'cause' (this covers, in its weak form, a focus on routine to keep things together)
Chris.
rosada said:an older man marrys to have a woman to take care of his house.
bruce_g said:Only if she wears a sexy maid's outfit.
bradford said:I think there are other nuances to this, partly because I see a little tongue-in-cheek humor in "no blame, no praise". I'm not certain, though, that the authors of the Wing commentary thought it was funny. If they did they would be parodying the shock and horror with their comment.
I think the Zhouyi authors acknowledged that there was a double standard that they would be unable to correct, and also that the majority of their readers were men at the time.
To me the line text "no blame, no praise" simply means don't expect a lot of support or even attention from society. I don't see it as a recommendation to avoid playing with older women (which was one of my favorite pastimes as a young student or shi). Yeah, no kids out of this, except hers, who are older than you, and you have to get past the smell of all that makeup. So what? There's things and new tricks to be learned here!
hilary said:The commentary on 28.5 (xiaoxiang) has a word, 醜, translated by Wilhelm/Baynes as 'a disgrace' and by Ritsema/Sabbadini as 'demoniac'. Brad has 'condemnation, derision, ugly (gossip)'.
Looking it up in Wenlin (with thanks to Brad's matrix for the character): 1) ugly, unsightly, hideous 2) disgraceful, shameful, scandalous. Karlgren: wine and devil/ghost/spirit, a drunken devil. And now hopefully someone with real knowledge about usage will chime in.
'Disgraceful' or 'scandalous' seems most likely, though it's an odd thing to say of a line with 'no blame, no praise'.
rosada said:By the way, I recently read a translation that included in 28.6 the line, "Possessed by devils indeed." Anyone else seen this? If it is indeed part of 28.6 I think it would suggest the older woman helping the younger man overcome his demons.
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).