遘
gòu

44. Coming to Meet

䷫
Above
乾 qián
The Creative, Heaven
Below
巽 xùn
The Gentle, Wind

This hexa­gram in­di­cates a sit­u­a­tion in which the prin­ci­ple of dark­ness, after hav­ing been elim­i­nat­ed, furtive­ly and un­ex­pect­ed­ly ob­trudes again from with­in and below. Of its own ac­cord the fe­male prin­ci­ple comes to meet the male. It is an un­fa­vor­able and dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion, and we must un­der­stand and prompt­ly pre­vent the pos­si­ble con­se­quences. The hexa­gram is linked with the fifth month, be­cause at the sum­mer sol­stice the prin­ci­ple of dark­ness grad­u­al­ly be­comes as­cen­dant again.

The Judgement

Coming to meet. The maiden is powerful.
One should not marry such a maiden.

The rise of the in­fe­ri­or el­e­ment is pic­tured here in the image of a bold girl who light­ly sur­ren­ders her­self and thus seizes power. This would not be pos­si­ble if the strong and light-giv­ing el­e­ment had not in turn come halfway. The in­fe­ri­or thing seems so harm­less and invit­ing that a man de­lights in it; it looks so small and weak that he imag­ines he may dally with it and come to no harm.

The in­fe­ri­or man rises only be­cause the su­pe­ri­or man does not re­gard him as dan­ger­ous and so lends him power. If he were re­sist­ed from the first, he could never gain in­flu­ence.

The time of COM­ING TO MEET is im­por­tant in still an­oth­er way. Al­though as a gen­er­al rule the weak should not come to meet the strong, there are times when this has great sig­nif­i­cance. When heav­en and earth come to meet each other, all crea­tures pros­per; when a prince and his of­fi­cial come to meet each other, the world is put in order. It is nec­es­sary for el­e­ments pre­des­tined to be joined and mu­tu­al­ly de­pen­dent to come to meet one an­oth­er halfway. But the com­ing to­geth­er must be free of dis­hon­est ul­te­ri­or mo­tives, oth­er­wise harm will re­sult.

The Image

Under heaven, wind:
The image of coming to meet.
Thus does the prince act when disseminating his commands
And proclaiming them to the four quarters of heaven.

The sit­u­a­tion here re­sem­bles that in hexa­gram 20, Kuan, CON­TEM­PLA­TION (view). In the lat­ter the wind blows over the earth, here it blows under heav­en; in both cases it goes every­where. There the wind is on the earth and sym­bol­izes the ruler tak­ing note of the con­di­tions in his king­dom; here the wind blows from above and sym­bol­izes the in­flu­ence ex­er­cised by the ruler through his com­mands. Heav­en is far from the things of earth, but it sets them in mo­tion by means of the wind. The ruler is far from his peo­ple, but he sets them in mo­tion by means of his com­mands and de­crees.

The Lines

Six at the beginning means:
It must be checked with a brake of bronze.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
If one lets it take its course, one experiences mis
fortune.
Even a lean pig has it in him to rage around.

If an in­fe­ri­or el­e­ment has wormed its way in, it must be en­er­get­i­cal­ly checked at once. By con­sis­tent­ly check­ing it, bad ef­fects can be avoid­ed. If it is al­lowed to take its course, mis­for­tune is bound to re­sult; the in­signif­i­cance of that which creeps in should not be a temp­ta­tion to un­der­rate it. A pig that is still young and lean can­not rage around much, but after it has eaten its fill and be­come strong, its true na­ture comes out if it has not pre­vi­ous­ly been curbed.

Nine in the second place means:
There is a fish in the tank. No blame.
Does not further guests.

The in­fe­ri­or el­e­ment is not over­come by vi­o­lence but is kept under gen­tle con­trol. Then noth­ing evil is to be feared. But care must be taken not to let it come in con­tact with those fur­ther away, be­cause once free it would un­fold its evil as­pects unchecked.

Nine in the third place means:
There is no skin on his thighs,
And walking comes hard.
If one is mindful of the danger,
No great mistake is made.

There is a temp­ta­tion to fall in with the evil el­e­ment of­fer­ing it­self a very dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion. For­tu­nate­ly cir­cum­stances pre­vent this; one would like to do it, but can­not. This leads to painful in­de­ci­sion in be­hav­ior. But if we gain clear in­sight into the dan­ger of the sit­u­a­tion, we shall at least avoid more se­ri­ous mis­takes.

Nine in the fourth place means:
No fish in the tank.
This leads to misfortune.

In­signif­i­cant peo­ple must be tol­er­at­ed in order to keep them well dis­posed. Then we can make use of them if we should need them. If we be­come alien­at­ed from them and do not meet them halfway, they turn their backs on us and are not at our dis­pos­al when we need them. But this is our own fault.

Nine in the fifth place means:
A melon covered with willow leaves.
Hidden lines.
Then it drops down to one from heaven.

The melon, like the fish, is a sym­bol of the prin­ci­ple of dark­ness. It is sweet but spoils eas­i­ly and for this rea­son is pro­tect­ed with a cover of wil­low leaves. This is a sit­u­a­tion in which a strong, su­pe­ri­or, well-poised man tol­er­ates and pro­tects the in­fe­ri­ors in his charge. He has the firm lines of order and beau­ty with­in him­self but he does not lay stress upon them. He does not both­er his sub­or­di­nates with out­ward show or tire­some ad­mo­ni­tions but leaves them quite free, putting his trust in the trans­form­ing power of a strong and up­right per­son­al­i­ty. And be­hold! Fate is fa­vor­able. His in­fe­ri­ors re­spond to his in­flu­ence and fall to his dis­po­si­tion like ripe fruit.

Nine at the top means:
He comes to meet with his horns.
Humiliation. No blame.

When a man has with­drawn from the world, its tu­mult often be­comes un­bear­able to him. There are many peo­ple who in a noble pride hold them­selves aloof from all that is low and re­buff it brusque­ly wher­ev­er it comes to meet them. Such per­sons are re­proached for being proud and dis­tant, but since ac­tive du­ties no longer hold them to the world, this does not great­ly mat­ter. They know how to bear the dis­like of the mass­es with com­po­sure.