Accepting the loss
One does not seek what one has lost. taoscopy.com
Shock51
Sudden change or shock, like thunder, that can jolt you awake. Embrace the disruption as an opportunity for growth, respond calmly, and align your actions with the new reality.
↓ Line 2
The shock may cause loss and hardship, but patience and perseverance will eventually restore what was lost. Avoid hasty actions.
↓ The Marrying Maiden54
Proceed cautiously, recognizing limitations and external influences. Adapt to circumstances with humility and patience, but remain aware of your own path and intentions.
Original Readings
51 Shock
Other titles: The Arousing, Thunder, The Symbol of Startling Movement, Shake, The Beginning of Movement, Shocking, The Thunderclap, Action, Motion, Sudden Change, Surprise! "The necessity to keep tranquil in the midst of upheaval." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Shock intimates ease and development. When the time of movement which it indicates comes, the subject of the hexagram will be found looking out with apprehension, and yet smiling and talking cheerfully. When the movement like a crash of thunder terrifies all within a hundred miles, he will be like the sincere worshipper who is not startled into dropping his ladle and cup of sacrificial spirits.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Shock brings success. Shock comes --oh, oh! Laughing words -- ha, ha! The shock terrifies for a hundred miles, and he does not let fall the sacrificial spoon and chalice.
Blofeld: Thunder -- success! Thunder comes with a terrible noise, laughing and shouting in awesome glee and frightening people for a hundred miles around. The sacrificial wine is not spilt. [This suggests that the holder of the sacrificial vessel is not easily alarmed or else that he is very wise and able to distinguish between the apparently dangerous and the truly dangerous.]
Liu: Thunder. Success. Thunder comes -- ho ho! Speaking and laughing -- ha ha! It shocks and terrifies for a hundred miles. But one does not drop the spoon or chalice.
Ritsema/Karcher: Shake, Growing. Shake coming: frightening, frightening. Laughing words, shrieking, shrieking. Shake scaring a hundred miles. Not losing the ladle, the libation. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of a disturbing and inspiring shock. It emphasizes that rousing things to new activity, the action of Shake is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: stir things up!]
Shaughnessy:Thunder: Receipt; thunder comes so renewingly; laughter and talk yaya; thunder alarms one hundred miles; not losing the ladle or goblet.
Cleary (1): Thunder is developmental. When thunder comes, there is alarm, then laughter. Thunder startles for a hundred miles, but one does not lose the spoon and wine.
Cleary (2):Thunder comes through. Etc.
Wu:Motion indicates pervasiveness. When Motioncomes, it frightens people. Later, it makes people talk and laugh. Its majesty reaches one hundred li in all directions. There is no misplacement of the ladle or sacrificial wine.
The Image
Legge: The image of Thunder, being repeated, forms Shock. The superior man, in accordance with this, is fearful and apprehensive, cultivates his virtue, and examines his faults.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder repeated: the image of Shock. Thus in fear and trembling the superior man sets his life in order and examines himself.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes continuous thunder. The Superior Man in fear and trembling seeks to improve himself.
Liu: Thunder doubled symbolizes shock. The superior man contemplates himself with fear and caution.
Ritsema/Karcher: Reiterated thunder. Shake. A chun tzu uses anxious fearing to adjust inspecting.
Cleary (1):Traveling thunder reverberates. Thus superior people cautiously practice introspection.
Cleary (2): Repeated thunder reverberates.Developed people practice introspection with caution.
Wu: One thunderclap after another constitutes hexagram Motion. Thus the jun zi reflects and rectifies for fear of being wrong.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His feeling of dread leads to happiness because he is thereby made to adopt proper laws for himself. The movement startles the distant and frightens the near, yet he makes the proper sacrifices the same as always.
Legge: Shock consists of the trigram for Thunder doubled. (This trigram also represents Movement and the Eldest Son.) The hexagram therefore symbolizes a crash or peal of thunder, and combined with the idea of movement shows a sudden change taking place in the kingdom. The lesson is the conduct to be pursued in a time of sudden change through an awareness of danger and the proper regulation of oneself.
A successful issue is predicted if the dynamic first line can be superior to the two magnetic lines above him. It is in the idea of the hexagram that he should be moving and advancing. Although sensible of the danger, he is confident and self-possessed -- so much so that he can calmly perform his religious duties during the prevailing chaos. This is proper behavior for the eldest son, who must eventually assume the duties of his father.
Anthony: In the I Chingshock means being subjected to unsettling events. It also means perceiving and reacting to these events … perceiving, in any of these changes, that a new set of limits, or deprivations, has been placed on our life which seems to restrict or even penalize us. This sense of being projected by events into a sort of emotional trap is what this hexagram calls “Fate.” Acknowledgement of this fate, or trap, and the imperative – to find the way out – is one of the purposes of shock. As far as the I Ching is concerned, there is only one way out – to undergo spiritual development.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: During sudden changes, adjust your tempo and move ahead, remembering that while conditions may alter, the goal remains the same.
The Superior Man double-checks his premises, confronts his weak spots and adheres to the rules and ideals of the Work.
The image here is one of a sudden, dramatic release of energy, power and force. To receive this hexagram without changing lines can refer to almost any abrupt, startling or unexpected situation. Sometimes it is the oracle's way of saying: "Surprise!” It can also be a kind of reprimand for asking a dumb or inappropriate question -- the oracle is "shocked” by your temerity, ignorance, etc. In such instances there is often an element of wry humor in the situation -- usually at the ego's expense. On rare occasions, it is possible to receive this hexagram as a warning about an upcoming event which has no bearing on the question posed. Should you receive such an oracle, be extremely vigilant – as always, the advice to the superior man in the Image suggests the proper course.
A true test of devotion to the Work is to maintain one's will under all circumstances. The world may be falling apart around us, but the adept does not ruin the performance of his sacrifice: the ego continues the Work regardless of conditions, and keeps a cool head under all circumstances.
Have no fear of sudden terror
or of assault from wicked men,
since Yahweh will be your guarantor,
He will keep your steps from the snare.
Proverbs 3: 25-26
Both Yahweh and Christ are what Jung calls "god images” which exist in one form or another in every human psyche, whether it is consciously religious or not. The god image is synonymous with the Self, and the implication of the above quotation from Proverbsis that as long as the ego remains devoted to the Work -- in I Chingterms: "maintains the sacrifice” -- it is under the protection of the Self.
The Perfect Man is godlike. Though the great swamps blaze, they cannot burn him; though the great rivers freeze, they cannot chill him; though swift lightning splits the hills and howling gales shake the sea, they cannot frighten him. A man like this rides the clouds and mist, straddles the sun and moon, and wanders beyond the four seas. Even life and death have no effect on him, much less the rules of profit and loss! Chuang Tzu
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows its subject, when the movement approaches in a position of peril. She judges it better to let go the articles in her possession, and to ascend to a very lofty height. There is no occasion for her to pursue after the things she has let go; in seven days she will find them.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Shock comes bringing danger. A hundred thousand times you lose your treasures and must climb the nine hills. Do not go in pursuit of them. After seven days you will get them back again.
Blofeld:Thunder approaches -- trouble is at hand! Sadly he lets go of his valuables and fleeing sets foot among the nine hills. He should not search for them; in seven days he will regain them.
Liu: Thunder comes, causing danger. You will lose a great deal of your wealth, then climb nine hills without searching for it. After seven days you will regain it.
Ritsema/Karcher: Shake coming: adversity. A hundred-thousand lost coins. Climbing tending-towards the ninth mound. No pursuit. The seventh day: acquiring.
Shaughnessy:Thunder comes so dangerously; one loses cowries; sacrificing to the nine peaks; do not follow, in seven days you will get it.
Cleary (1):Thunder comes: dangerous thoughts. Losing valuables, you climb nine hills: Don’t chase it – you’ll get it in seven days. [Mounting strength with weakness, arbitrary imagination gets too high, and one tries to do what one cannot do. This is losing basic sense and acting on dangerous thoughts … It is fortunate if you maintain rectitude when you are weak, not daring to act arbitrarily…]
Cleary (2):Thunder comes – dangerous. Remembering that you have lost your treasure, you climb nine hills. But do not pursue it; in seven days you will get it.
Wu: He encounters severe movements and presumes to have lost his precious possessions. He climbs up a hill that has nine winding passes, There is no need to search for his possessions. He will recover them after seven days. [He climbs up to high ground to distance himself from the movement below.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: A magnetic line is mounted on a dynamic one. Wilhelm/Baynes: It rests upon a firm line. Blofeld: That the approach of thunder presages trouble is indicated by the position of this yielding line over a firm one. Ritsema/Karcher: Riding a solid indeed. Cleary (2): The danger of thunder coming is mounting the unyielding. Wu: Because he rides on a yang. [The weak second six “rides” on the strong first nine and finds what a perilous situation he is in.]
Legge: The peril in line two is suggested by her position immediately above line one. The rest of the symbolism is obscure, and Chu Hsi says he does not understand it. The subject of the line does what she can to get out of danger, and finally, as is signified by the central position of the line, the issue is better than could have been expected. On the symbolism of "seven days," Ch'eng-tzu says: "The places of a hexagram amount to six. The number seven is the first of another hexagram. When the movement symbolized by Shock has gone through its cycle, things will be as they were before."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: An uprising endangers the man. He accepts the material losses and ascends to lofty heights inaccessible to the threatening forces. After the shock and upheaval have subsided, his property will be restored without his fighting for it.
Wing: A cataclysmic upheaval can cause you great losses. Do not try to resist or fight the forces, since this is impossible. Instead, remove yourself from the dangerous situation. Become inaccessible. In time you will recoup your losses.
Editor: Symbolically, the symbolism is not obscure at all: the basic idea is to transcend your habitual responses and view them from a higher perspective. When things have settled down again, losses will prove to be illusory.
Verily destruction is the foundation of existence,
And the tearing down thou seest
Is but the assembling of material
for a greater structure...
Deluded are they who say,
"Man liveth by the Mercy of the Lord."
Know ye
That the balance of Mercy and Severity
Is the continuance of every life,
Yea, and of this whole universe.
P.F. Case -- The Book of Tokens
A. A new situation renders old methods obsolete.
B. Detach yourself from your accustomed responses and wait for the situation to mature. Losses are imaginary.
54 The Marrying Maiden
Other titles: The Marrying Maiden, The Symbol of the Marriage of the Younger Sister, Marriageable Maiden, The Marrying Girl, Subordinate, The Second Wife, Converting Maidenhood, Returning maiden, Making a young girl marry, Marrying a young girl, Marrying a Maiden, Unilateral Action, Impropriety, Improper Advances, "Deals with life and death, sex and birth. It contains a warning about a person or situation. It deals essentially with discrimination. The first step on the Path without which we are useless." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Propriety indicates that action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Marrying Maiden. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.
Blofeld:The Marriageable Maiden. Advance brings misfortune. No goal (or destination) is now favorable.
Liu: The Marrying Girl. Undertaking leads to misfortune. Nothing benefits.
Ritsema/Karcher: Converting Maidenhood, chastising: pitfall. Without direction: Harvesting. [Without direction: Harvesting: ... In order to take advantage of the situation, do not impose a direction on events.] [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Returning maiden: To be upright is inauspicious; there is no place beneficial.
Cleary (1): Making a young girl marry: To go on will lead to misfortune; no profit is gained.
Cleary (2):Marrying a young girl. To go on an expedition leads to misfortune, with nothing gained.
Wu: Marrying a Maiden indicates that it will be foreboding to make moves. There is nothing to be gained.
The Image
Legge: The waters of a Marsh with Thunder over it form the hexagram of Propriety. The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder over the lake: the image of The Marrying Maiden. Thus the superior man understands the transitory in the light of the eternity of the end.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder over a pool. The Superior Man knows that, to achieve an enduring end, he must be aware of his mistakes at the beginning.
Liu: Thunder over the lake symbolizes the Marrying Girl. The superior man knows the cause of error, and persists in his virtue to the end.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh possessing thunder. Converting Maidenhood. A chun tzu uses perpetually completing to know the cracked.
Cleary (1): There is thunder above a lake, making a young girl marry. Thus superior people persist to the end and know what is wrong.
Cleary (2): Thunder over a lake – Marrying a young girl. Developed people consider lasting results and know what is wrong. [The way developed people handle things is that before they take the time to ask how to start something, they first consider lasting results. If they think of lasting results, they know what is wrong with acting prematurely, like marrying an immature girl. If you understand the meaning of this, you can apply it to government and to contemplating mind as well.]
Wu: There is thunder above the marsh; this is Marrying a Maiden. Thus, the jun zi in the pursuit of lasting excellence realizes the flaws and corrects them.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In the marriage of a young bride the proper relationship between heaven and earth is seen. Nothing could grow or flourish if heaven and earth did not unite. The marriage of a young bride is therefore both the commencement and goal of humanity. But here the desire of pleasure employs movement to attain union. This action will be evil because the lines are in inappropriate places, and the magnetic three and five are mounted on dynamic lines.
Legge: The Chinese phrase for this hexagram might be equivalent to the English "giving in marriage,” but there are some special meanings in this case which must be understood. The Judgment gives a bad auspice because the trigram of the Youngest Daughter is beneath the trigram of the Eldest Son. Since the action of the hexagram begins with the lowest trigram, we have two violations of propriety. First, the marriage is initiated by the woman and her friends. She goes unilaterally to her future home instead of the bridegroom coming to fetch her. Second, the parties are unequally matched -- there is too great a disparity in their ages. In addition, all the lines in the hexagram except the top and the bottom are in places inappropriate for them. Some commentators insist that the symbol of the contracting of a marriage in this hexagram sets forth some principles which should obtain in the relation between a ruler and his ministers.
The growth of things in nature from the interaction of heaven and earth is analogous to the increase of mankind through the interaction between male and female in marriage. The K'ang-hsi editors reconcile this good auspice with the unfavorable Judgment by saying: "The interaction of the yin and yang cannot be dispensed with, but we ought to be careful about it in the beginning in order to prevent mischief in the end.” The error here is that the desire for the marriage originated with the lady, and that she is heedless of the disparity in their ages.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Propriety means that unilateral action is inappropriate.
The Superior Man understands that the Work is guided from within, and that choices which ignore this truth can only retard its progress. (Present actions originate future consequences: pay heed to your choices.)
The traditional name for this hexagram is The Marrying Maiden -- a title which does not convey to modern western readers the subtlety of its symbolism. Blofeld says: "This hexagram is, on the whole, a most unfortunate omen ... We must not suppose that it deals only with marriage. What is said about the maiden symbolizes in some way or other what we may expect for ourselves within the context of our enquiry." The figure is certainly difficult, but "unfortunate" only if its import is resisted or denied: any portrayal of our situation which eliminates illusion (however painful the realization), must be regarded as a positive lesson.
Although the Confucian commentary describes this hexagram in terms of self-seeking aspiration, the wretched protagonist of the figure is not invariably culpable, and neither Judgment nor Image imply this. In addition to being at the very bottom of the social pecking order, the maiden is portrayed as half-blind, crippled and a "slave." Although condemned by the commentators for importuning a marriage that would raise her status, a close reading of the lines reveals that only the sixth place suggests possible impropriety -- the others all contain advice about how one of extremely low status should cope with restricted circumstances. The hexagram therefore can deal with either of two possible conditions: those involving Proprietyand those involving Making-do as an adaptation to adversity.
In the first instance, it is useful to compare the symbolism here with that of the preceding hexagram of Gradual Progress. There we see the organic progression of the Work allegorized as the proper marriage of a young woman. In this case, Gradual Progress has been turned upside down and the symbolism reversed: this young woman improperly pursues a marriage on her own initiative. Psychologically interpreted, it can be regarded as an image of the ego pushing its own agenda or desire for union.
The ego may move in directions and toward actions that are at variance with the intentions and standards of the Self ... The mature adult needs to recognize eventually his or her relative limitedness vis-à-vis the "Self- field" and the cosmic organism of which s/he is but a cell. We are subject to the ordering and growth intents of the entelechy of the whole. E. C. Whitmont -- The Alchemy of Healing
To recognize our `relative limitedness “vis-à-vis the Self-field” is to renounce our claim to unilateral action. Though the ego ardently desires a marriage with the Self, only the Self can initiate such a union. Chou Tun I, an early Neo-Confucian, makes an observation which illuminates Legge's Image:
"The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning. The most important things in the world are tendencies. Tendencies may be strong or weak. If a tendency is extremely strong, it cannot be controlled. But it is possible to control it quickly if one realizes that it is strong. To control it requires effort. If one does not realize early enough, it will not be easy to apply effort.”
To receive this hexagram without changing lines can be an admonition to examine your motives and actions in the matter at hand. Where are you out of line? If no obvious impropriety is involved, it could also portray an essentially impotent predicament. At such times Ritsema/Karcher's synopsis bears repetition: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it.”
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare Propriety with hexagram number fifty-three, Gradual Progress, then compare them both with hexagram number thirty-one,Initiative. What are the similarities in their ideas? Now look at hexagrams number eleven, seventeen and twenty-two and observe the over-all philosophy which begins to emerge.