剝
bō

23. Splitting Apart

䷖
Above
艮 gèn
Keeping Still, Mountain
Below
坤 kūn
The Receptive, Earth

The dark lines are about to mount up­ward and over­throw the last firm, light line by ex­ert­ing a dis­in­te­grat­ing in­flu­ence on it. The in­fe­ri­or, dark forces over­come what is su­pe­ri­or and strong, not by di­rect means, but by un­der­min­ing it grad­u­al­ly and im­per­cep­ti­bly, so that it fi­nal­ly col­laps­es.

The lines of the hexa­gram present the image of a house, the top line being the roof, and be­cause the roof is being shat­tered the house col­laps­es. The hexa­gram be­longs to the ninth month (Oc­to­ber-No­vem­ber). The yin power push­es up ever more pow­er­ful­ly and is about to sup­plant the yang power al­to­geth­er.

The Judgement

Splitting apart. It does not further one
To go anywhere.

This pic­tures a time when in­fe­ri­or peo­ple are push­ing for­ward and are about to crowd out the few re­main­ing strong and su­pe­ri­or men. Under these cir­cum­stances, which are due to the time, it is not fa­vor­able for the su­pe­ri­or man to un­der­take any­thing.

The right be­hav­ior in such ad­verse times is to be de­duced from the im­ages and their at­trib­ut­es. The lower tri­gram stands for the earth, whose at­trib­ut­es are docil­i­ty and de­vo­tion. The upper tri­gram stands for the moun­tain, whose at­tribute is still­ness. This sug­gests that one should sub­mit to the bad time and re­main quiet. For it is a ques­tion not of man’s doing but of time con­di­tions, which, ac­cord­ing to the laws of heav­en, show an al­ter­na­tion of in­crease and de­crease, full­ness and empti­ness. It is im­pos­si­ble to coun­ter­act these con­di­tions of the time. Hence it is not cow­ardice but wis­dom to sub­mit and avoid ac­tion.

The Image

The mountain rests on the earth:
The image of splitting apart.
Thus those above can ensure their position
Only by giving generously to those below.

The moun­tain rests on the earth. When it is steep and nar­row, lack­ing a broad base, it must top­ple over. Its po­si­tion is strong only when it rises out of the earth broad and great, not proud and steep. So like­wise those who rule rest on the broad foun­da­tion of the peo­ple. They too should be gen­er­ous and benev­o­lent, like the earth that car­ries all. Then they will make their po­si­tion as se­cure as a moun­tain is in its tran­quil­li­ty.

The Lines

Six at the beginning means:
The leg of the bed is split.
Those who persevere are destroyed.
Misfortune.

In­fe­ri­or peo­ple are on the rise and stealth­ily begin their de­struc­tive bur­row­ing from below in order to un­der­mine the place where the su­pe­ri­or man rests. Those fol­low­ers of the ruler who re­main loyal are de­stroyed by slan­der and in­trigue. The sit­u­a­tion bodes dis­as­ter, yet there is noth­ing to do but wait.

Six in the second place means:
The bed is split at the edge.
Those who persevere are destroyed.
Misfortune.

The power of the in­fe­ri­or peo­ple is grow­ing. The dan­ger draws close to one’s per­son; al­ready there are clear in­di­ca­tions, and rest is dis­turbed. More­over, in this dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion one is as yet with­out help or friend­ly ad­vances from above or below. Ex­treme cau­tion is nec­es­sary in this iso­la­tion. One must ad­just to the time and prompt­ly avoid the dan­ger. Stub­born per­se­ver­ance in main­tain­ing one’s stand­point would lead to down­fall.

Six in the third place means:
He splits with them. No blame.

An in­di­vid­ual finds him­self in an evil en­vi­ron­ment to which he is com­mit­ted by ex­ter­nal ties. But he has an inner re­la­tion­ship with a su­pe­ri­or man, and through this he at­tains the sta­bil­i­ty to free him­self from the way of the in­fe­ri­or peo­ple around him. This brings him into op­po­si­tion to them of course, but that is not wrong.

Six in the fourth place means:
The bed is split up to the skin.
Misfortune.

Here the dis­as­ter af­fects not only the rest­ing place but even the oc­cu­pant. No warn­ing or other com­ment is added. Mis­for­tune has reached its peak: it can no longer be ward­ed off.

Six in the fifth place means:
A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies.
Everything acts to further.

Here, in im­me­di­ate prox­im­i­ty to the strong, light-giv­ing prin­ci­ple at the top, the na­ture of the dark force un­der­goes a change. It no longer op­pos­es the strong prin­ci­ple by means of in­trigues but sub­mits to its guid­ance. In­deed, as the head of the other weak lines, it leads all of these to the strong line, just as a princess leads her maids-in-wait­ing like a shoal of fish­es to her hus­band and thus gains his favor. Inas­much as the lower el­e­ment thus vol­un­tar­i­ly places it­self under the high­er, it at­tains hap­pi­ness and the high­er also re­ceives its due. There­fore all goes well.

Nine at the top means:
There is a large fruit still uneaten.
The superior man receives a carriage.
The house of the inferior man is split apart.

Here the split­ting apart reach­es its end. When mis­for­tune has spent it­self, bet­ter times re­turn. The seed of the good re­mains, and it is just when the fruit falls to the ground that good sprouts anew from its seed. The su­pe­ri­or man again at­tains in­flu­ence and ef­fec­tive­ness. He is sup­port­ed by pub­lic opin­ion as if in a car­riage. But the in­fe­ri­or man’s wicked­ness is vis­it­ed upon him­self. His house is split apart. A law of na­ture is at work here. Evil is not de­struc­tive to the good alone but in­evitably de­stroys it­self as well. For evil, which lives sole­ly by nega­tion, can­not con­tin­ue to exist on its own strength alone. The in­fe­ri­or man him­self fares best when held under con­trol by a su­pe­ri­or man.