Other titles: The Receptive, The Symbol of Earth, Submission, The Passive Principle, Field, The Flow, Responsive Service, Yin, Natural Response, The Bearer
Judgment
Legge:The Magnetic means success through the docility of a mare. If the superior man takes the initiative, he goes astray, but if he follows, he finds his proper lord. It is advantageous to find one's friends in the southwest, and to lose them in the northeast. Through a passively firm correctness, there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Receptive brings about sublime success, furthering through the perseverance of a mare. If the superior man undertakes something and tries to lead, he goes astray; but if he follows, he finds guidance. It is favorable to find friends in the west and south, to forgo friends in the east and north. Quiet perseverance brings good fortune.
Blofeld:The Passive Principle. Sublime success! Its omen is a mare, symbolizing advantage. The Superior Man has an objective and sets forth to gain it. At first he goes astray, but later finds his bearings. It is advantageous to gain friends in the west and the south, but friends in the east and the north will be lost to us. Peaceful and righteous persistence brings good fortune
Liu: The Receptive : great success. Benefiting from the quality of a mare -- perseverance. The superior man has an undertaking; in the beginning he will go astray, but later will receive guidance. He can find a friend in the southwest and lose friends in the northeast. Peacefulness and continuance. Good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Field: Spring Growing Harvesting, female horse's Trial.
A chun tzu possesses directed going. Beforehand delusion, afterwards
acquiring. A lord Harvesting. Western South: acquiring partnering. Eastern North: losing partnering. Quiet Trial significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the primal structuring power confronted with many forces and obstacles. It emphasizes that giving way in order to serve and yield results, the action of Field, is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to yield!]
Shaughnessy:The Flow: Prime receipt; beneficial for the determination of a mare; the gentleman has someplace to go, is first lost but later gains his ruler; beneficial to the southwest to gain a friend, to the northeast to lose a friend; contented determination is auspicious.
Cleary(1): With earth, creativity and development are achieved in the faithfulness of the female horse. The superior person has somewhere to go. Taking the lead, one goes astray; following, one finds the master. It is beneficial to gain companionship in the southwest and lose companionship in the northeast. Stability in rectitude is good.
Cleary(2): The creative is successful. It is beneficial to be correct like a mare. People with developmental potential have a goal; if they go ahead before this, they will get lost. If they follow, they get the benefit of the director. Companionship is found in the southwest; companionship is lost in the northeast. Stability and correctness bode well.
Wu:The Bearer is primordial, pervasive, prosperous, and has the perseverance of a mare. When the jun zi is going to undertake a task, he will lose his direction if he leads, and he will find guidance if he follows. This will be advantageous. If he goes south or west, he will win friends; if he goes north or east, he will lose them. If he can be content and single-hearted, he will have good fortune.
The Image
Legge: The capacity and sustaining power of the Earth is shown in The Magnetic. The superior man supports men and things with his large virtue.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The earth's condition is receptive devotion. Thus the superior man who has breadth of character carries the outer world.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes the passivity of the terrestrial forces. The Superior Man displays the highest virtue by embracing all things.
Liu: The earth's condition is that of the Receptive. The superior man has the greatness of character to bear with everything in the world.
Ritsema/Karcher: Earth potency: Field. A chun tzu uses munificent actualizing-tao to carry the beings. [Actualize-tao: ...ability to follow the course traced by the ongoing process of the cosmos... Linked with acquire, TE: acquiring that which makes a being become what it is meant to be.]
Cleary(1): The configuration of earth is receptive; superior people support
others with warmth.
Cleary(2): The attitude of earth is receptivity. Thus do leaders support people with rich virtue.
Wu:The Bearer symbolizes the physical features and resources of the earth. Thus the jun zi uses his immense virtue to bear his responsibilities.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: All things owe their birth to the great originating capacity of The Magnetic -- it obediently receives the influences of Heaven. Its largeness contains and supports all things, and its capacity matches the unlimited power of The Dynamic. Its comprehension is wide, its brilliance great, and through it all things are fully developed. The mare is a creature of the earth, with a limitless power to traverse the land. She is mild and docile, with stamina and capacity for work. Such is the path of the superior man. If he takes the initiative, he loses his way; if he follows, he finds it again. In the southwest he will walk with his own kind. To lose friends in the northeast means he is well rid of them. The passively firm correctness of the superior man imitates the unlimited capacity of the earth.
Legge: The same attributes are ascribed to The Magnetic as in the former hexagram to The Dynamic -- but with a difference: The Dynamic originates, The Magnetic produces, or gives birth to what has been originated. This figure, made of six divided lines, symbolizes the idea of subordination and docility. The superior man described here must not take the initiative, and by following he will find his lord – the subject ofThe Dynamic. The firm correctness is analogous to a mare -- docile and strong, but a creature for the service of man. That it is not the sex of the animal which is paramount is plain from the mention of the superior man and his lord.
The superior man will bring his friends with him to serve the ruler. The southwest is the direction proper forThe Magnetic.The northeast is the direction proper for the trigram of the Mountain -- hence a direction of obstruction and impasse, the opposite of magnetic receptivity. Thus the injunction to seek friends who are receptive, and shun those who are recalcitrant.
Concerning The Image, Lin Hsi-yuan says: "The superior man, in his single person sustains the burden of all under the sky. The common people depend on him for their rest and enjoyment. Birds and beasts and creeping things, and the tribes of the vegetable kingdom, depend on him for the fulfillment of their destined being. If he be of a narrow mind and cold virtue, how can he help them? Their hope in him would be in vain."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The ego bears the burden of the Work. Success is found in compliance with the will of the Self.
The Superior Man supports the Work through its many transformations.
In terms of the symbolism of the Work, the second hexagram clearly shows the proper role of the ego as one of receptivity to the will of the Self. The sexual, male-female metaphor must be interpreted as one of polarity. The ego, inhabiting a physical body, is the psychological link which connects the material dimension of spacetime with the world of thought where the Self resides. To be receptive to the influence of the Self is to allow its energy to work through the ego-body to attain its purpose. This earth-like receptivity is seen as a feminine quality, as the Heavenly dynamic force emanating from the Self is seen as masculine. Earth means the body in spacetime, and Heaven means the realm of thought transcending spacetime -- the Pleroma of the gnostics which Jung referred to as the Collective Unconscious. The concept is also found in the Kabbalah:
I am the Door of Life,
The passage from the world of ideas
Into the world of form...
Now, as Daleth [the Door],
I present myself as the Portal
Through which life, Eternal and Unbounded,
Entereth the realm of temporal and limited creation...
I am the fruitful womb
Whence all creatures have their birth.P.F. Case -- The Book of Tokens
The message in the Judgment clearly indicates the ego's proper role –
"If the superior man takes the initiative, he goes astray." This is supplemented by the image of a docile mare which uncomplainingly bears its load. Indeed, during certain phases of the Work it becomes painfully obvious that the ego really is just a beast of burden. The Self is beyond our full comprehension, and at times it uses us as if we were an expendable tool -- which, to a certain extent, we are. Only by realizing that our existence in spacetime consists mostly of illusions and that the Self is the only real thing in our lives, can we come to accept the Work as the duty we were created to perform.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare the ego-Self relationship in hexagrams one and two with that in hexagrams seven and eight.
Legge: In the first line, magnetic, we see its subject treading on hoar-frost. The strong ice will come by and by.
Wilhelm/Baynes: When there is hoarfrost underfoot, solid ice is not far off.
Blofeld: Hoarfrost underfoot betokens the coming of solid ice.
Liu: When hoarfrost is underfoot, solid ice will soon come.
Ritsema/Karcher: Treading frost, hardening ice culminating.
Shaughnessy: Treading on frost: the firm ice will arrive.
Cleary(1): Walking on frost: Hard ice arrives.
Cleary(2): As you walk on frost, hard ice shows up.
Wu: Treading on hoarfrost signals the arrival of solid ice.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The cold air has begun to take form. Allow it to go on quietly according to its nature, and the hoar- frost will turn to strong ice. Wilhelm/Baynes: When the dark power begins to grow rigid and continues in this way, things reach the point of solid ice. Blofeld: This line indicates the approach of winter's dark power; following nature's sequence, the season of solid ice is at hand. Ritsema/Karcher: Yin begins solidifying indeed. Docilely involving one's tao: culminating hardening the ice indeed. Cleary(2): The first congealing of yin. Mastering that path is coming to hard ice. Wu: Vapor from the yin has begun to coalesce. As it takes its normal course, solid ice will come soon.
Miscellaneous notes: The family that accumulates goodness is sure to have superabundant happiness, and the family that accumulates evil is sure to have superabundant misery. The murder of a ruler by his minister, or of his father by a son, is not the result of events of one morning or one evening. The causes of it have gradually accumulated through the absence of early discrimination. Hence, "She treads on the hoar-frost; the strong ice will come by and by," shows the natural issue and growth of things.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man is careful not to overlook the first signs of evil and decay. The threatening dangers are checked before their natural issue and growth.
Wing: If you look carefully, you can see the very beginnings of decay entering the situation. Total deterioration is not far off. Make preparations now for the coming change.
Editor: Water relates to the emotions and to the unconscious. Water
becoming ice suggests frigid emotions or unconscious energy which is frozen and unusable. To tread is to advance, and to tread on hoar-frost is to advance toward an ever more unyielding situation. If our attitudes are thus leading us into an impasse, it only makes sense to "return to virtue," one of the names of the hexagram which is created if this is the only changing line.
This is the condition of avidya, not-knowing, which Buddha described as the supreme obstacle in the way of enlightenment. For primal sloth, the inertia of matter, of the body, can be overcome only when it is impregnated with the spark of the divine spirit, of consciousness.
M.E. Harding -- Psychic EnergyA. The image suggests the beginning of an impasse.
B. A negative tendency.
C. Stay alert -- dark forces are waxing. (You may be creating the situation.)
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows the attribute of being straight, square, and great. Its operation, without repeated efforts, will be in every respect advantageous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Straight, square, great. Without purpose, yet nothing remains unfurthered.
Blofeld: Straight and of broad capacity, though we do nothing, all our affairs prosper.
Liu: Straight, square, great -- without study. Everything benefits.
Ritsema/Karcher: Straightening on-all-sides, great. Not repeating: without not Harvesting.
Shaughnessy: Straight, square and great; not repeated; there is nothing not beneficial.
Cleary(1): Straightforward, correct, great. Unfailing achievement without practice.
Cleary(2): Upright, straight, great; unfailing benefit without practice.
Wu: True, methodical, and great. There will always be advantages for doing what comes naturally. [“Doing what comes naturally” as applied to (this line means doing completely in accordance with the will of heaven.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The image shows us the brilliant result of the way of earth. Wilhelm/Baynes: In the nature of the earth lies the light. Blofeld: This line indicates a straight- forward movement to occupy a spacious area. Though nothing is done, everything prospers -- this is a glorious characteristic of the terrestrial forces. Ritsema/Karcher: Straightening used on-all sides indeed. Not repeating: without not Harvesting. Earthly tao shining indeed. Cleary(2): Unfailing benefit without practice; the way of earth is illumined. Wu: True and methodical. Signify the glory of earth.
Miscellaneous notes:"Straight" indicates the correctness of the internal principle, and "square," the righteousness of the external act. Thus, the superior man, through Self- reverence, maintains his inner correctness, and adjusts his external acts accordingly. This establishment of reverent correctness ensures that his expressions of virtue are neither partial nor solitary. Such a one has no doubts about what he does.
Legge: Line two presents to us the earth itself, according to the Chinese conception of it, as a great cube.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Nature's way is straight and unerring, foursquare and calm, great and tolerant. Everything is accomplished without the necessity of fabricated purpose. The man's work is equally self-evident. His internal principles are correct; his external acts are righteous; his results are certain.
Wing: Drop all artifice about what you are doing. Take your cue from nature: Become tolerant, straightforward, and self- evident. Strike an inner equilibrium at this time and success will come easily.
Editor: If the first line describes a condition which is inhospitable for growth, the second line describes the opposite idea: the receptive Mother Earth herself. This is the fertile matrix which brings forth life and provides for its nourishment. The image suggests a huge field with hundreds of freshly ploughed furrows converging on the horizon. Straight:Direct and open, clear and unambiguous. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Square: A universal description of firmness and stability. It suggests the quaternary of the four directions and symbolizes the earth -- our material existence and the corresponding Sensation function in the psyche. To be "four- square" is to be forthright, honest, firmly rooted in the world. Great: Gives the image of the fertile and boundless earth stretching out in all directions. Implicit in the line is the idea that no action is required -- the passive earth forces bring forth all things in time. This suggests the mindlessness of natural processes which obey their own laws and not the ignorant expectations of men.
The spirit of the valley never dies.
It is called the Mystic Female.
The door of the Mystic Female
Is the root of Heaven and Earth.
Continuously, continuously,
It seems to remain.
Draw upon it
And it serves you with ease.Lao Tse
A. Suggests receptivity to experience. Life unfolds -- flow with it.
B. The laws of nature are constant and unchangeable; they are the permanent matrix within which occurs all change. Allow the situation to develop at its own pace.
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows the symbol of a sack tied up. There will be no ground for blame or praise.
Wilhelm/Baynes: A tied-up sack. No blame, no praise.
Blofeld: Taciturnity -- no blame, no praise.
Liu: The sack is tied up. No recognition, no blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Bundled in the bag. Without fault, without praise.
Shaughnessy: Tying the sack; there is no trouble, there is no praise.
Cleary(1): Closing the bag – no blame, no praise.
Wu: Tying up a pouch is without blame or praise.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: A sack tied up -- there will be no error. This shows how through carefulness, no injury will be received. Wilhelm/Baynes: Through caution one remains free of harm. Blofeld: The passage means that, with proper caution, we shall escape trouble. [Note: From the point of view of divination, it is this sentence which best serves as a guide to action.]Ritsema/Karcher: Consideration not harmful indeed. Cleary(2): Being prudent so as to avoid harm. Wu: Prudence prevents accidents.
Miscellaneous notes: The interaction between Heaven and Earth creates the transformation of organic life. When their interaction is restricted, men of virtue and ability withdraw into obscurity. The line is a lesson of caution.
Legge: Line four shows its subject exercising a still greater restraint than in line three.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man observes the strictest self-restraint and reserve in dangerous times. In this way he incurs neither injury from antagonists with designs on pre-eminence nor obligations to others.
Wing: It is a difficult time, requiring caution. Develop an inner reserve and maintain a low profile. This can be done within the mainstream of society or in the strictest of solitude. Confrontations now will lead to antagonism or undesirable obligations.
Editor: A tied-up sack is a very womb-like image -- who can tell what is going on inside of it? Gestation is a slow and hidden process, and we cannot know the outcome until its time is complete. The line often depicts a stalemate. At such times it is best to take no action at all.
The creative process has a feminine quality, and the creative work arises from unconscious depths -- we might truly say from the realm of the Mothers. Whenever the creative force predominates, life is ruled and shaped by the unconscious rather than by the conscious will.
Jung -- The Spirit in Man, Art, and LiteratureA. The situation is inconclusive. Wait it out.
B. An answer is not forthcoming at this time.
Other titles: The Marrying Maiden, The Symbol of the Marriage of the Younger Sister, Marriageable Maiden, The Marrying Girl, Subordinate, The Second Wife, Converting Maidenhood, Returning maiden, Making a young girl marry, Marrying a young girl, Marrying a Maiden, Unilateral Action, Impropriety, Improper Advances, "Deals with life and death, sex and birth. It contains a warning about a person or situation. It deals essentially with discrimination. The first step on the Path without which we are useless." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Propriety indicates that action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Marrying Maiden. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.
Blofeld:The Marriageable Maiden. Advance brings misfortune. No goal (or destination) is now favorable.
Liu: The Marrying Girl. Undertaking leads to misfortune. Nothing benefits.
Ritsema/Karcher: Converting Maidenhood, chastising: pitfall. Without direction: Harvesting. [Without direction: Harvesting: ... In order to take advantage of the situation, do not impose a direction on events.] [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Returning maiden: To be upright is inauspicious; there is no place beneficial.
Cleary (1): Making a young girl marry: To go on will lead to misfortune; no profit is gained.
Cleary (2):Marrying a young girl. To go on an expedition leads to misfortune, with nothing gained.
Wu: Marrying a Maiden indicates that it will be foreboding to make moves. There is nothing to be gained.
The Image
Legge: The waters of a Marsh with Thunder over it form the hexagram of Propriety. The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder over the lake: the image of The Marrying Maiden. Thus the superior man understands the transitory in the light of the eternity of the end.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder over a pool. The Superior Man knows that, to achieve an enduring end, he must be aware of his mistakes at the beginning.
Liu: Thunder over the lake symbolizes the Marrying Girl. The superior man knows the cause of error, and persists in his virtue to the end.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh possessing thunder. Converting Maidenhood. A chun tzu uses perpetually completing to know the cracked.
Cleary (1): There is thunder above a lake, making a young girl marry. Thus superior people persist to the end and know what is wrong.
Cleary (2): Thunder over a lake – Marrying a young girl. Developed people consider lasting results and know what is wrong. [The way developed people handle things is that before they take the time to ask how to start something, they first consider lasting results. If they think of lasting results, they know what is wrong with acting prematurely, like marrying an immature girl. If you understand the meaning of this, you can apply it to government and to contemplating mind as well.]
Wu: There is thunder above the marsh; this is Marrying a Maiden. Thus, the jun zi in the pursuit of lasting excellence realizes the flaws and corrects them.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In the marriage of a young bride the proper relationship between heaven and earth is seen. Nothing could grow or flourish if heaven and earth did not unite. The marriage of a young bride is therefore both the commencement and goal of humanity. But here the desire of pleasure employs movement to attain union. This action will be evil because the lines are in inappropriate places, and the magnetic three and five are mounted on dynamic lines.
Legge: The Chinese phrase for this hexagram might be equivalent to the English "giving in marriage,” but there are some special meanings in this case which must be understood. The Judgment gives a bad auspice because the trigram of the Youngest Daughter is beneath the trigram of the Eldest Son. Since the action of the hexagram begins with the lowest trigram, we have two violations of propriety. First, the marriage is initiated by the woman and her friends. She goes unilaterally to her future home instead of the bridegroom coming to fetch her. Second, the parties are unequally matched -- there is too great a disparity in their ages. In addition, all the lines in the hexagram except the top and the bottom are in places inappropriate for them. Some commentators insist that the symbol of the contracting of a marriage in this hexagram sets forth some principles which should obtain in the relation between a ruler and his ministers.
The growth of things in nature from the interaction of heaven and earth is analogous to the increase of mankind through the interaction between male and female in marriage. The K'ang-hsi editors reconcile this good auspice with the unfavorable Judgment by saying: "The interaction of the yin and yang cannot be dispensed with, but we ought to be careful about it in the beginning in order to prevent mischief in the end.” The error here is that the desire for the marriage originated with the lady, and that she is heedless of the disparity in their ages.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Propriety means that unilateral action is inappropriate.
The Superior Man understands that the Work is guided from within, and that choices which ignore this truth can only retard its progress. (Present actions originate future consequences: pay heed to your choices.)
The traditional name for this hexagram is The Marrying Maiden -- a title which does not convey to modern western readers the subtlety of its symbolism. Blofeld says: "This hexagram is, on the whole, a most unfortunate omen ... We must not suppose that it deals only with marriage. What is said about the maiden symbolizes in some way or other what we may expect for ourselves within the context of our enquiry." The figure is certainly difficult, but "unfortunate" only if its import is resisted or denied: any portrayal of our situation which eliminates illusion (however painful the realization), must be regarded as a positive lesson.
Although the Confucian commentary describes this hexagram in terms of self-seeking aspiration, the wretched protagonist of the figure is not invariably culpable, and neither Judgment nor Image imply this. In addition to being at the very bottom of the social pecking order, the maiden is portrayed as half-blind, crippled and a "slave." Although condemned by the commentators for importuning a marriage that would raise her status, a close reading of the lines reveals that only the sixth place suggests possible impropriety -- the others all contain advice about how one of extremely low status should cope with restricted circumstances. The hexagram therefore can deal with either of two possible conditions: those involving Proprietyand those involving Making-do as an adaptation to adversity.
In the first instance, it is useful to compare the symbolism here with that of the preceding hexagram of Gradual Progress. There we see the organic progression of the Work allegorized as the proper marriage of a young woman. In this case, Gradual Progress has been turned upside down and the symbolism reversed: this young woman improperly pursues a marriage on her own initiative. Psychologically interpreted, it can be regarded as an image of the ego pushing its own agenda or desire for union.
The ego may move in directions and toward actions that are at variance with the intentions and standards of the Self ... The mature adult needs to recognize eventually his or her relative limitedness vis-à-vis the "Self- field" and the cosmic organism of which s/he is but a cell. We are subject to the ordering and growth intents of the entelechy of the whole.
E. C. Whitmont -- The Alchemy of Healing
To recognize our `relative limitedness “vis-à-vis the Self-field” is to renounce our claim to unilateral action. Though the ego ardently desires a marriage with the Self, only the Self can initiate such a union. Chou Tun I, an early Neo-Confucian, makes an observation which illuminates Legge's Image:
"The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning. The most important things in the world are tendencies. Tendencies may be strong or weak. If a tendency is extremely strong, it cannot be controlled. But it is possible to control it quickly if one realizes that it is strong. To control it requires effort. If one does not realize early enough, it will not be easy to apply effort.”
To receive this hexagram without changing lines can be an admonition to examine your motives and actions in the matter at hand. Where are you out of line? If no obvious impropriety is involved, it could also portray an essentially impotent predicament. At such times Ritsema/Karcher's synopsis bears repetition: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it.”
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare Propriety with hexagram number fifty-three, Gradual Progress, then compare them both with hexagram number thirty-one,Initiative. What are the similarities in their ideas? Now look at hexagrams number eleven, seventeen and twenty-two and observe the over-all philosophy which begins to emerge.