12. Standstill [Stagnation]

The text is al­most, the same as that of the first line of the pre­ced­ing hexa­gram, but with a con­trary mean­ing. In the lat­ter a man is draw­ing an­oth­er along with him on the road to an of­fi­cial ca­reer; here a man is draw­ing an­oth­er with him into re­tire­ment from pub­lic life. This is why the text says here, “Per­se­ver­ance brings good for­tune and suc­cess,” and not “Un­der­tak­ings bring good for­tune.” If it be­comes im­pos­si­ble to make our in­flu­ence count, it is only by re­tire­ment that we spare our­selves hu­mil­i­a­tion. Suc­cess in a high­er sense can be ours, be­cause we know how to safe­guard the value of our per­son­al­i­ties.

In­fe­ri­or peo­ple are ready to flat­ter their su­pe­ri­ors in a servile way. They would also en­dure the su­pe­ri­or man if he would put an end to their con­fu­sion. This is for­tu­nate for them. But the great man calm­ly bears the con­se­quences of the stand­still. He does not min­gle with the crowd of the in­fe­ri­or; that is not his place. By his will­ing­ness to suf­fer per­son­al­ly he in­sures the suc­cess of his fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples.

In­fe­ri­or peo­ple who have risen to power il­le­git­i­mate­ly do not feel equal to the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty they have taken upon them­selves. In their hearts they begin to be ashamed, al­though at first they do not show it out­ward­ly. This marks a turn for the bet­ter.

The time of stand­still is near­ing the point of change into its op­po­site. Who­ev­er wish­es to re­store order must feel him­self called to the task and have the nec­es­sary au­thor­i­ty. A man who sets him­self up as ca­pa­ble of cre­at­ing order ac­cord­ing to his own judg­ment could make mis­takes and end in fail­ure. But the man who is truly called to the task is fa­vored by the con­di­tions of the time, and all those of like mind will share in his bless­ing.

The time un­der­goes a change. The right man, able to re­store order, has ar­rived. Hence “Good for­tune.” But such pe­ri­ods of tran­si­tion are the very times in which we must fear and trem­ble. Suc­cess is as­sured only through great­est cau­tion, which asks al­ways, “What if it should fail?” When a mul­ber­ry bush is cut down, a num­ber of un­usu­al­ly strong shoots sprout from the roots. Hence the image of tying some­thing to a clus­ter of mul­ber­ry shoots is used to sym­bol­ize the way of mak­ing suc­cess cer­tain. Con­fu­cius says about this line: “Dan­ger aris­es when a man feels se­cure in his po­si­tion. De­struc­tion threat­ens when a man seeks to pre­serve his world­ly es­tate. Con­fu­sion de­vel­ops when a man has put every­thing in order. There­fore the su­pe­ri­or man does not for­get dan­ger in his se­cu­ri­ty, nor ruin when he is well es­tab­lished, nor con­fu­sion when his af­fairs are in order. In this way he gains per­son­al safe­ty and is able to pro­tect the em­pire.”

The stand­still does not last for­ev­er. How­ev­er, it does not cease of its own ac­cord; the right man is need­ed to end it. This is the dif­fer­ence be­tween a state of peace and a state of stag­na­tion. Con­tin­u­ous ef­fort is nec­es­sary to main­tain peace: left to it­self it would change into stag­na­tion and dis­in­te­gra­tion. The time of dis­in­te­gra­tion, how­ev­er, does not change back au­to­mat­i­cal­ly to a con­di­tion of peace and pros­per­i­ty; ef­fort must be put forth in order to end it. This shows the cre­ative at­ti­tude that man must take if the world is to be put in order.