臨
lín

19. Approach

䷒
Above
坤 kūn
The Receptive, Earth
Below
兌 duì
The Joyous, Lake

The Chi­nese word lin has a range of mean­ings that is not ex­haust­ed by any sin­gle word of an­oth­er lan­guage. The an­cient ex­pla­na­tions in the Book of Changes give as its first mean­ing, “be­com­ing great.” What be­comes great are the two strong lines grow­ing into the hexa­gram from below; the light-giv­ing power ex­pands with them. The mean­ing is then fur­ther ex­tend­ed to in­clude the con­cept of ap­proach, es­pe­cial­ly the ap­proach of what is strong and high­ly placed in re­la­tion to what is lower. Fi­nal­ly the mean­ing in­cludes the at­ti­tude of con­de­scen­sion of a man in high po­si­tion to­ward the peo­ple, and in gen­er­al the set­ting to work on af­fairs. This hexa­gram is linked with the twelfth month (Jan­u­ary-Feb­ru­ary), when, after the win­ter sol­stice, the light power be­gins to as­cend again.

The Judgement

Approach has supreme success.
Perseverance furthers.
When the eighth month comes,
There will be misfortune.

The hexa­gram as a whole points to a time of joy­ous, hope­ful progress. Spring is ap­proach­ing. Joy and for­bear­ance bring high and low near­er to­geth­er. Suc­cess is cer­tain. But we must work with de­ter­mi­na­tion and per­se­ver­ance to make full use of the pro­pi­tious­ness of the time. And one thing more: spring does not last for­ev­er. In the eighth month the as­pects are re­versed. Then only two strong, light lines are left; these do not ad­vance but are in re­treat (see next hexa­gram). We must take heed of this change in good time. If we meet evil be­fore it be­comes re­al­i­ty—be­fore it has even begun to stir—we can mas­ter it.

The Image

The earth above the lake:
The image of approach.
Thus the superior man is inexhaustible
In his will to teach,
And without limits
In his tolerance and protection of the people.

The earth bor­ders upon the lake from above. This sym­bol­izes the ap­proach and con­de­scen­sion of the man of high­er po­si­tion to those be­neath him. The two parts of the image in­di­cate what his at­ti­tude to­ward these peo­ple will be. Just as the lake is in­ex­haustible in depth, so the sage is in­ex­haustible in his readi­ness to teach mankind, and just as the earth is bound­less­ly wide, sus­tain­ing and car­ing for all crea­tur­tes on it, so the sage sus­tains and cares for all peo­ple and ex­cludes no part of hu­man­i­ty.

The Lines

Nine at the beginning means:
Joint approach.
Perseverance brings good fortune.

The good be­gins to pre­vail and to find re­sponse in in­flu­en­tial cir­cles. This in turn is an in­cen­tive to men of abil­i­ty. It is well to join this up­ward trend, but we must not let our­selves be car­ried away by the cur­rent of the time; we must ad­here per­se­ver­ing­ly to what is right. This brings good for­tune.

Nine in the second place means:
Joint approach.
Good fortune.
Everything furthers.

When the stim­u­lus to ap­proach comes from a high place, and when a man has the inner strength and con­sis­ten­cy that need no ad­mo­ni­tion, good for­tune will ensue. Nor need the fu­ture cause any con­cern. He is well aware that every­thing earth­ly is tran­si­to­ry, and that a de­scent fol­lows upon every rise, but need not be con­fused by this uni­ver­sal law of fate. Every­thing serves to fur­ther. There­fore he will trav­el the paths of life swift­ly, hon­est­ly, and valiant­ly.

Six in the third place means:
Comfortable approach.
Nothing that would further.
If one is induced to grieve over it,
One becomes free of blame.

Things are going well for a man: he achieves power and in­flu­ence. But in this lies the dan­ger that he may relax, and con­fi­dent of his po­si­tion, allow the easy­go­ing, care­less mood to show it­self in his deal­ings with other peo­ple. This would in­evitably be harm­ful. But there is pos­si­bil­i­ty of a change of mood. If he re­grets his mis­tak­en at­ti­tude and feels the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of an in­flu­en­tial po­si­tion, he frees him­self of faults.

Six in the fourth place means:
Complete approach.
No blame.

While the three lower lines in­di­cate rise to power and in­flu­ence, the three upper lines show the at­ti­tude of per­sons in high­er po­si­tion to­ward those of lower rank for whom they pro­cure in­flu­ence. Here is shown the open-mind­ed ap­proach of a per­son of high rank to a man of abil­i­ty whom he draws into his own cir­cle, re­gard­less of class prej­u­dice. This is very fa­vor­able.

Six in the fifth place means:
Wise approach.
This is right for a great prince.
Good fortune.

A prince, or any­one in a lead­ing po­si­tion, must have the wis­dom to at­tract to him­self peo­ple of abil­i­ty who are ex­pert in di­rect­ing af­fairs. His wis­dom con­sists both in se­lect­ing the right peo­ple and in al­low­ing those cho­sen to have a free hand with­out in­ter­fer­ence from him. For only through such self-re­straint will he find the ex­perts need­ed to sat­is­fy all of his re­quire­ments.

Six at the top means:
Greathearted approach.
Good fortune. No blame.

A sage who has put the world be­hind him and who in spir­it has al­ready with­drawn from life may, under cer­tain cir­cum­stances, de­cide to re­turn once more to the here and now and to ap­proach other men. This means great good for­tune for the men whom he teach­es and helps. And for him this great­heart­ed hum­bling of him­self is blame­less.