The I Ching or Book of Changes (59 page)

Now winter ensues, in the trigram K’an, the Abysmal. K’an, in the north—the place of the Receptive in the Primal Arrangement—is symbolized by the gorge. Now comes the toil of gathering the crops into the barns. Water shuns no effort, always seeking the lowest level, so that everything flows to it; in the same way, winter in the course of the year, and midnight in the course of the day, are the time of concentration.

The trigram Keeping Still, whose symbol is the mountain, is of mysterious significance. Here, in the seed, in the deep-hidden stillness, the end of every thing is joined to a new beginning. Death and life, dying and resurrection—these are the thoughts awakened by the transition from the old year to the new.

Thus the cycle is closed. Like the day or the year in nature, so every life, indeed every cycle of experience, is a continuity by which old and new are linked together. In view of this we can understand why, in several of the sixty-four hexagrams, the southwest represents the period of work and fellowship, while the northeast stands for the time of solitude, when the old is brought to an end and the new is begun.

6. The spirit is mysterious in all living things and works through them. Of all the forces that move things, there is none swifter than thunder. Of all the forces that bend things, there is none swifter than wind. Of all the forces that warm things, there is none more drying than fire. Of all the forces that give joy to things, there is none more gladdening than the lake. Of all the forces that moisten things, there is none more moist than water. Of all the forces that end and begin things, there is none more glorious than keeping still.

Therefore: Water and fire complement each other, thunder and wind do not interfere with each other, and the forces of mountain and lake are united in their action. Thus only are change and transformation possible, and thus only can all things come to perfection.

Only the action of the six derived trigrams is described here. It is the action of the spiritual, which is not a thing among things, but the force that manifests its existence through the various effects of thunder, wind, and so on. The two primary trigrams, the Creative and the Receptive, are not mentioned because, as heaven and earth, they actually are those emanations of the spirit within which, through the action of the derived forces, the visible world comes into being and changes. Each of these forces acts in a definite direction, but movement and change come about only because the forces acting as pairs of opposites, without canceling each other, set going the cyclic movement on which the life of the world depends.

CHAPTER III

The third chapter deals with the eight trigrams separately and presents the symbols with which they are associated. It is important inasmuch as the words of the text on the individual lines in each hexagram are very often to be explained against
the background of these symbols. A knowledge of these associations is important as a tool in understanding the structure of the Book of Changes.

7.
The Attributes

The Creative is strong.
The Receptive is yielding.
The Arousing means movement.
The Gentle is penetrating.
The Abysmal is dangerous.
The Clinging means dependence.
Keeping Still means standstill.
The Joyous means pleasure.

8.
The Symbolic Animals

The Creative acts in the horse, the Receptive in the cow, the Arousing in the dragon, the Gentle in the cock, the Abysmal in the pig, the Clinging in the pheasant, Keeping Still in the dog, the Joyous in the sheep.

The Creative is symbolized by the horse,
¹
swift and tireless as it runs, and the Receptive by the gentle cow. The Arousing, whose image is thunder, is symbolized by the dragon, which, rising out of the depths, soars up to the stormy sky—in correspondence with the single strong line pushing upward below the two yielding lines. The Gentle, the Penetrating, is symbolized by the cock, time’s watchman, whose voice pierces the stillness—pervasive as the wind, the image of the Gentle. Water is the image associated with the Abysmal; of the domestic animals, the pig is the one that lives in mud and water. In Li as its trigram, the Clinging, brightness, has originally the image of a pheasant-like firebird. The dog, the faithful guardian, belongs to Kên, Keeping Still. The Joyous is linked with the sheep, which is regarded as the animal belonging to the west; the two parts of the divided line at the top are the horns of the sheep.

9.
The Parts of the Body

The Creative manifests itself in the head, the Receptive in the belly, the Arousing in the foot, the Gentle in the thighs, the Abysmal in the ear, the Clinging (brightness) in the eye, Keeping Still in the hand, the Joyous in the mouth.

The head governs the entire body. The belly serves for storing up. The foot steps on the ground and moves; the hand holds fast. The thighs under their covering branch downward; the mouth in plain sight opens upward. The ear is hollow outside; the eye is hollow inside. All these are pairs of opposites corresponding with the trigrams.

10.
The Family of the Primary Trigrams

The Creative is heaven, therefore it is called the father. The Receptive is the earth, therefore it is called the mother.

In the trigram of the Arousing she seeks for the first time the power of the male and receives a son. Therefore the Arousing is called the eldest son.

In the trigram of the Gentle the male seeks for the first time the power of the female and receives a daughter. Therefore the Gentle is called the eldest daughter.

In the Abysmal she seeks for a second time and receives a son. Therefore it is called the middle son.

In the Clinging he seeks for a second time and receives a daughter. Therefore it is called the middle daughter.

In Keeping Still she seeks for a third time and receives a son. Therefore it is called the youngest son.

In the Joyous he seeks for a third time and receives a daughter. Therefore it is called the third daughter.

In the sons, according to this derivation, the substance comes from the mother—hence the two female lines—while the dominant or determining line comes from the father. The opposite holds in the case of the daughters. The child is opposite in sex to the parent who “seeks” it.

Here we note a difference between the Inner-World Arrangement and the Primal Arrangement with respect to the sex of the derived trigrams. In the Primal Arrangement the lowest line is always the sex determinant and the sons are: (1) Chên, the Arousing [
]; (2) Li, the Clinging (the sun) [
]; (3) Tui, the Joyous [
]. In the arrangement shown in the diagram [
fig. 1
] they stand in the eastern half. The daughters are: (1) Sun, the Gentle [
]; (2) K’an, the Abysmal (the moon) [
]; (3) Kên, Keeping Still [
]. They stand in the western half. In the Inner-World Arrangement, therefore, only Chên and Sun have not changed in sex. The diagram [
fig. 2
] shows the three sons to the left of Ch’ien, the Creative, while K’un has the two elder daughters at the right and the youngest daughter at the left between itself and Ch’ien.

11.
Additional Symbols

The Creative is heaven. It is round, it is the prince, the father, jade, metal, cold, ice; it is deep red, a good horse, an old horse, a lean horse, a wild horse, tree fruit.

Most of these symbols explain themselves. Jade is the symbol of spotless purity and of firmness; so likewise is metal. Cold and ice are accounted for by the position of the trigram in the northwest. Deep red is the intensified color of the light principle (in the text itself, midnight blue is the color of the Creative, according with the color of the sky). The various horses denote power, endurance, firmness, strength (the “wild” horse is a mythical saw-toothed animal, able to tear even a tiger to pieces). Fruit is a symbol of duration in change.