賁
bì

22. Grace

䷕
Above
艮 gèn
Keeping Still, Mountain
Below
離 lí
The Clinging, Fire

This hexa­gram shows a fire that breaks out of the se­cret depths of the earth and, blaz­ing up, il­lu­mi­nates and beau­ti­fies the moun­tain, the heav­en­ly heights. Grace—beau­ty of form—is nec­es­sary in any union if it is to be well or­dered and pleas­ing rather thandis­or­dered and chaot­ic.

The Judgement

Grace has success.
In small matters
It is favorable to undertake something.

Grace brings suc­cess. How­ev­er, it is not the es­sen­tial or fun­da­men­tal thing; it is only the or­na­ment and must there­fore be used spar­ing­ly and only in lit­tle things. In the lower tri­gram of fire a yield­ing line comes be­tween two strong lines and makes them beau­ti­ful, but the strong lines Eire the es­sen­tial con­tent and the weak line is the beau­ti­fy­ing form. In the upper tri­gram of the moun­tain, the strong line takes the lead, so that here again the strong el­e­ment must be re­gard­ed as the de­ci­sive fac­tor. In na­ture we see in the sky the strong light of the sun; the life of the world de­pends on it. But this strong, es­sen­tial thing is changed and given pleas­ing va­ri­ety by the moon and the stars. In human af­fairs, aes­thet­ic form comes into being when tra­di­tions exist that, strong and abid­ing like moun­tains, are made pleas­ing by a lucid beau­ty. By con­tem­plat­ing the forms ex­ist­ing in the heav­ens we come to un­der­stand time and its chang­ing de­mands. Through con­tem­pla­tion of the forms ex­ist­ing in human so­ci­ety it be­comes pos­si­ble to shape the world.

The Image

Fire at the foot of the mountain:
The image of grace.
Thus the superior man proceeds
When clearing up current affairs.
But he dare not decide controversial issues in this way.

The fire, whose light il­lu­mi­nates the moun­tain and makes it pleas­ing, does not shine far; in the same way, beau­ti­ful form suf­fices to bright­en and to throw light upon mat­ters of less­er mo­ment, but im­por­tant ques­tions can­not be de­cid­ed in this way. They re­quire greater earnest­ness.

The Lines

Nine at the beginning means:
He lends grace to his toes, leaves the carriage, and walks.

A be­gin­ner in a sub­or­di­nate place must take upon him­self the labor of ad­vanc­ing. There might be an op­por­tu­ni­ty of sur­rep­ti­tious­ly eas­ing the way—sym­bol­ized by the car­riage—but a self-con­tained man scorns help gained in a du­bi­ous fash­ion. He thinks it more grace­ful to go on foot than to drive in a car­riage under false pre­tens­es.

Six in the second place means:
Lends grace to the beard on his chin.

The beard is not an in­de­pen­dent thing; it moves only with the chin. The image there­fore means that form is to be con­sid­ered only as a re­sult and at­tribute of con­tent. The beard is a su­per­flu­ous or­na­ment. To de­vote care to it for its own sake, with­out re­gard for the inner con­tent of which it is an or­na­ment, would be­speak a cer­tain van­i­ty.

Nine in the third place means:
Graceful and moist.
Constant perseverance brings good fortune.

This rep­re­sents a very charm­ing life sit­u­a­tion. One is under the spell of grace and the mel­low mood in­duced by wine. This grace can adorn, but it can also swamp us. Hence the warn­ing not to sink into con­vivial in­do­lence but to re­main con­stant in per­se­ver­ance. Good for­tune de­pends on this.

Six in the fourth place means:
Grace or simplicity?
A white horse comes as if on wings.
He is not a robber,
He will woo at the right time.

An in­di­vid­ual is in a sit­u­a­tion in which doubts arise as to which is bet­ter—to pur­sue the grace of ex­ter­nal bril­liance, or to re­turn to sim­plic­i­ty. The doubt it­self im­plies the an­swer. Con­fir­ma­tion comes from the out­side; it comes like a white winged horse. The white color in­di­cates sim­plic­i­ty. At first it may be dis­ap­point­ing to re­nounce com­forts that might have been ob­tained, yet one finds peace of mind in a true re­la­tion­ship with the friend who courts him. The winged horse is the sym­bol of the thoughts that tran­scend all lim­its of space and time.

Six in the fifth place means:
Grace in hills and gardens.
The roll of silk is meager and small.
Humiliation, but in the end good fortune.

A man with­draws from con­tact with peo­ple of the low­lands, who seek noth­ing but mag­nif­i­cence and lux­u­ry, into the soli­tude of the heights. There he finds an in­di­vid­ual to look up to, whom he would like to have as a friend. But the gifts he has to offer are poor and few, so that he feels ashamed. How­ev­er, it is not the ma­te­r­i­al gifts that count, but sin­cer­i­ty of feel­ing, and so all goes well in the end.

Nine at the top means:
Simple grace. No blame.

Here at the high­est stage of de­vel­op­ment all or­na­ment is dis­card­ed. Form no longer con­ceals con­tent but brings out its value to the full. Per­fect grace con­sists not in ex­te­ri­or or­na­men­ta­tion of the sub­stance, but in the sim­ple fit­ness of its form.