Hexagram 60
節 Jié · Limitation
Legge: Kieh
☵ Water (Kǎn) above ☱ Lake (Duì)
Scryway summary
Modern commentary written for Scryway. Not part of the classic text.
Measure and boundaries. Limits help, but limits that are too harsh cannot last.
The judgment
Kieh intimates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and attainment. (But) if the regulations (which it prescribes) be severe and difficult, they cannot be permanent.
The image
(The trigram representing) a lake, and above it that for water, form Kieh. The superior man, in accordance with this, constructs his (methods of) numbering and measurement, and discusses (points of) virtue and conduct.
The lines, bottom to top
- Bottom line, solid
The first line, undivided, shows its subject not quitting the courtyard outside his door. There will be no error.
- Second line, solid
The second line, undivided, shows its subject not quitting the courtyard inside his gate. There will be evil.
- Third line, broken
The third line, divided, shows its subject with no appearance of observing the (proper) regulations, in which case we shall see him lamenting. But there will be no one to blame (but himself).
- Fourth line, broken
The fourth line, divided, shows its subject quietly and naturally (attentive to all) regulations. There will be progress and success.
- Fifth line, solid
The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject sweetly and acceptably enacting his regulations. There will be good fortune. The onward progress with them will afford ground for admiration.
- Top line, broken
The topmost line, divided, shows its subject enacting regulations severe and difficult. Even with firmness and correctness there will be evil. But though there will be cause for repentance, it will (by and by) disappear.
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.