Scryway

Hexagram 11

泰 Tài · Peace

Legge: Thai

☷ Earth (Kūn) above ☰ Heaven (Qián)

Scryway summary

Modern commentary written for Scryway. Not part of the classic text.

Heaven and earth in exchange. A time of flow and connection, worth tending while it lasts.

The judgment

In Thai (we see) the little gone and the great come. (It indicates that) there will be good fortune, with progress and success.

The image

(The trigrams for) heaven and earth in communication together form Thai. The (sage) sovereign, in harmony with this, fashions and completes (his regulations) after the courses of heaven and earth, and assists the application of the adaptations furnished by them,—in order to benefit the people.

The lines, bottom to top

  1. Bottom line, solid

    The first line, undivided, suggests the idea of grass pulled up, and bringing with it other stalks with whose roots it is connected. Advance (on the part of its subject) will be fortunate.

  2. Second line, solid

    The second line, undivided, shows one who can bear with the uncultivated, will cross the Ho without a boat, does not forget the distant, and has no (selfish) friendships. Thus does he prove himself acting in accordance with the course of the due Mean.

  3. Third line, solid

    The third line, undivided, shows that, while there is no state of peace that is not liable to be disturbed, and no departure (of evil men) so that they shall not return, yet when one is firm and correct, as he realises the distresses that may arise, he will commit no error. There is no occasion for sadness at the certainty (of such recurring changes); and in this mood the happiness (of the present) may be (long) enjoyed.

  4. Fourth line, broken

    The fourth line, divided, shows its subject fluttering (down);—not relying on his own rich resources, but calling in his neighbours. (They all come) not as having received warning, but in the sincerity (of their hearts).

  5. Fifth line, broken

    The fifth line, divided, reminds us of (king) Ti-yi's (rule about the) marriage of his younger sister. By such a course there is happiness and there will be great good fortune.

  6. Top line, broken

    The sixth line, divided, shows us the city wall returned into the moat. It is not the time to use the army. (The subject of the line) may, indeed, announce his orders to the people of his own city; but however correct and firm he may be, he will have cause for regret.

Quoted from James Legge (trans.), The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1882. Public domain. The image is from Legge’s Appendix II. Words in parentheses are Legge’s additions.