32. Duration

The strong tri­gram Chen is above, the weak tri­gram Sun below. This hexa­gram is the in­verse of the pre­ced­ing one. In the lat­ter we have in­flu­ence, here we have union as an en­dur­ing con­di­tion. The two im­ages are thun­der and wind, which are like­wise con­stant­ly paired phe­nom­e­na. The lower tri­gram in­di­cates gen­tle­ness with­in; the upper, move­ment with­out. In the sphere of so­cial re­la­tion­ships, the hexa­gram rep­re­sents the in­sti­tu­tion of mar­riage as the en­dur­ing union of the sexes. Dur­ing courtship the young man sub­or­di­nates him­self to the girl, but in mar­riage, which is rep­re­sent­ed by the com­ing to­geth­er of the el­dest son and the el­dest daugh­ter, the hus­band is the di­rect­ing and mov­ing force out­side, while the wife, in­side, is gen­tle and sub­mis­sive.

Du­ra­tion is a state whose move­ment is not worn down by hin­drances. It is not a state of rest, for mere stand­still is re­gres­sion. Du­ra­tion is rather the self-con­tained and there­fore self-re­new­ing move­ment of an or­ga­nized, firm­ly in­te­grat­ed whole, tak­ing place in ac­cor­dance with im­mutable laws and be­gin­ning anew at every end­ing. The end is reached by an in­ward move­ment, by in­hala­tion, sys­tole, con­trac­tion, and this move­ment turns into a new be­gin­ning, in which the 32. IIeng I Du­ra­tion move­ment is di­rect­ed out­ward, in ex­ha­la­tion, di­as­tole, ex­pan­sion.

Heav­en­ly bod­ies ex­em­pli­fy du­ra­tion. They move in their fixed or­bits, and be­cause of thia their light-giv­ing power en­dures. The sea­sons of the year fol­low a fixed law of change and trans­for­ma­tion, hence can pro­duce ef­fects that en­dure.

So like­wise the ded­i­cat­ed man em­bod­ies an en­dur­ing mean­ing in his way of life, and there­by the world is formed. In that which gives things their du­ra­tion, we can come to un­der­stand the na­ture of all be­ings in heav­en and on earth.

Thun­der rolls, and the wind blows; both are ex­am­ples of ex­treme mo­bil­i­ty and so are seem­ing­ly the very op­po­site of du­ra­tion, but the laws gov­ern­ing their ap­pear­ance and sub­si­dence, their com­ing and going, en­dure. In the same way the in­de­pen­dence of the su­pe­ri­or man is not based on rigid­i­ty and im­mo­bil­i­ty of char­ac­ter. He al­ways keeps abreast of the time and changes with it. What en­dures is the unswerv­ing di­rec­tive, the inner law of his being, which de­ter­mines all his ac­tions.