Break through obstacles with determination, purge the old, and ignite a powerful wave of transformation.
From
21
Biting Through
To
49
Revolution
Celebrating the winners
One can crackle when success is at hand. taoscopy.com
Biting Through21
Face conflicts head-on to clear blockages; decisive action breaks through obstacles.
↓ Line 3
Challenges are tough and may lead to minor setbacks, but persistence will lead to no lasting harm.
↓ Line 5
Success is possible through careful and persistent effort, despite the risks.
↓ Line 6
Being overly rigid or harsh can lead to misfortune and loss of understanding.
↓ Revolution 49
Embrace transformation and change, recognizing the need for renewal. Be decisive and aware of timing, facilitating progress within yourself and your environment.
Other titles: Biting Through, Gnawing, The Symbol of Mastication and Punishment by Pressing and Squeezing, Gnawing Bite, Severing, Chewing, Punishment, Reformation, Reform, Differentiation, Discrimination, Making a Distinction, Getting the message "Something which should be, or has to be bitten through. This is essentially the legal hexagram. When asking about a man's intentions, he is probably married." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Success is found in Discernment. The restrictions of the law bring advantage.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Biting Through has success. It is favorable to let justice be administered.
Blofeld: Gnawing. Success! The time is favorable for legal processes. [The concept of gnawing is suggested by the component trigrams, which are regarded (owing to the arrangement of their lines) as not commingling; they are as separate from each other as the upper and lower jaw when something tough is being gnawed.]
Liu: Chewing: Success. It benefits to administer justice. [Chewing indicates success through hard work. Those who get this hexagram will have trouble in the beginning.]
Ritsema/Karcher:Gnawing Bite, Growing. Harvesting: availing of litigating. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of confronting a tenacious obstacle. It emphasizes that biting through and picking things clean until the essential is revealed is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: gnaw and bite through!]
Shaughnessy: Biting and chewing: Receipt; beneficial to use a court case.
Cleary (1):Biting through is developmental. It is beneficial to administer justice.
Cleary (2): Biting through is successful. It is beneficial to apply justice.
Wu: Discernment is pervasive. It will be advantageous to exact punishments.
The Image
Legge: The images of thunder and lightning form Discernment. Thus the ancient kings promulgated their laws and framed their penalties with intelligence.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder and lightning: The image of Biting Through. Thus the kings of former times made firm the laws through clearly defined penalties.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes lightning accompanied by thunder. The ancient rulers, after making their legal code perfectly clear to all, enforced the laws vigorously. [The firm and yielding lines more or less alternate; or the lower trigram can be regarded as filled with the power of thunderous force, while the upper trigram, representing beauty, is soft and yielding. (Li, the upper trigram, stands for lightning as well as for fire, beauty, etc.) I do not know what the ancient Chinese views on thunder and lightning were; it appears from this that they were regarded as two forces which, like steel and flint, emitted brilliance when brought into sharp contact with each other. A pair of trigrams both with yielding centers is not felt to be a good arrangement; that it nevertheless favors the process of the law may have been suggested to the writer of the Text by the fact that the weak lines (morally weak people?) are fully contained by the strong (prison walls, warders and so forth?)]
Liu: Thunder and lightning symbolize Chewing. The ancient kings made the laws and clarified the penalties.
Ritsema/Karcher: Thunder, lightning. Gnawing Bite. The Earlier Kings used brightening flogging to enforce the laws.
Cleary (1): Thunder and lightning, biting through. Thus did the kings of yore clarify penalties and proclaim laws. [Those who administer laws should emulate the ancient kings in first clarifying them before executing them, in order to avoid mistakenly injuring life.]
Wu: Thunder and lightning form Discernment. Thus the ancient kings made just punishments and upheld the law of the land.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The existence of something between the jaws gives rise to the name Discernment-- union by means of biting through the intervening article. The dynamic and magnetic lines are equally divided in the figure. Movement is denoted by the lower trigram, and Clarity by the upper -- thunder and lightning uniting in them, and having brilliant manifestation. The magnetic fifth line is in the center, and acts in her high position. Although she is not in her proper place, this is advantageous for the use of legal constraints.
Legge: Discernment means literally "union by gnawing." The figure consists of undivided lines in the top, bottom and fourth places -- giving the image of open jaws with something in them "being gnawed." When the object has been bitten through, the upper and lower jaws come together in union -- hence: " Union by gnawing." Remove the obstacles to union and high and low will meet together in understanding. The force exerted by gnawing suggests the idea of legal constraints.
The equal division of the dynamic and magnetic lines is seen by taking them in pairs, though the order of the first pair is different from the other two. The magnetic fifth line is the ruler of the hexagram, indicating that judgment is tempered by leniency.
Ch'eng-tzu says that thunder and lightning are always found together, and hence their trigrams go together to give the idea of union intended in Discernment: one trigram symbolizing majesty and the other intelligence.
Cleary (1): Practice of the Tao is like administering justice: Discerning true and false, right and wrong, is like the judge deciding good and bad; getting rid of falsehood and keeping truth, so as to preserve essence and life, is like the [just] administration rewarding the good and punishing the bad, so as to alleviate the burden of injustice.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Further the Work through careful Discernment between what is true and false, right and wrong, correct and incorrect.
The Image portrays the connection between cause and effect, where consequences are always based on the inexorable laws of nature.
To bite is to comprehend, and to bite through is to make distinctions. The top and bottom lines of the hexagram represent the upper and lower jaws, and both bear images of restriction and punishment. Each of the lines between them portrays some version of biting through flesh. Hence, the jaws define the general problem, and the teeth differentiate the details.
The symbol of losing teeth has the primitive meaning of losing one's grip because under primitive circumstances and in the animal kingdom, the teeth and mouth are the gripping organ. If one loses teeth, one loses the grip on something. Now this can mean a loss of self-control, etc. The English word grip is contained in the German word begriff (conception or notion). The Latin word conceptio means the same, i.e., catching hold of something, having a grip on something. Jung -- Letters
In I Ching symbolism, the "ancient kings” are always synonymous with spiritual authority. Analogous to gods or cosmic forces, their "laws" are like the laws of karma or of nature -- inexorable in their outcome. Therefore, the punishment theme in the hexagram warns us that a lack of Discernment in the matter at hand has built-in penalties: i.e., "Get the message or suffer the consequences.”
Behold, sin and punishment are one, and the fire of punishment is the fire that refines my works. Even in the sinner I am the actor, and I, too, am the sufferer in the experience of punishment. P.F. Case -- The Book of Tokens
To receive this hexagram without changing lines indicates a need to make some important distinctions in the matter at hand. “Figure it out” might make a good alternate title at such times. Cleary’s Taoist note on the image (“Those who administer laws should emulate the ancient kings in first clarifying them before executing them, in order to avoid mistakenly injuring life”) is a clear admonition to get all of your facts straight before proceeding with your inquiry. That you don’t know or understand something is implied.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
The twenty-first hexagram turned upside down becomes the twenty-second. The message for the superior man in the Image of each concerns the enforcement of law. What is the relationship between Discernmentand Persona in such a context? The component trigrams of these two figures also make up hexagrams number fifty-five, Expansion of Awareness and number fifty-six, Transition.The messages for the superior man in each of these figures also relate to litigation. Why? What do the four hexagrams suggest about the nature of the Work?
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows one gnawing dried flesh, and meeting with what is disagreeable. There will be occasion for some small regret, but no great error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Bites on old dried meat and strikes something poisonous. Slight humiliation. No blame.
Blofeld: Gnawing dried meat, he was poisoned, but not severely enough to indispose him for long -- no error! [This line presages trouble through no fault of ours which will not, however, incapacitate us for long.]
Liu: By chewing dried salt meat one gets poisoned. Small humiliation, but no blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Gnawing seasoned meat. Meeting poison. The small abashed. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Biting dried meat and meeting with poison; small distress; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Biting on dried meat, running into poison. There is a little shame, but no blame.
Wu: He bites dried salted meat and gets an unpleasant aftertaste. There will be slight regret, but no error. [A yin in a yang position makes his judgment hard like biting on dried cured meat. The “unpleasant aftertaste” may suggest he is biting more than he can chew, he faces rowdy offenders, or he has a little rough time. But he makes no error.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She meets with what is disagreeable and hurtful -- her position is not the proper one for her. Wilhelm/Baynes: The place is not the appropriate one. Blofeld: His being poisoned is indicated by the unsuitable position of this line. Ritsema/Karcher: Situation not appropriate indeed. Wu: His position is improper.
Legge: Line three is magnetic in a dynamic place. Her action will be ineffective, and is symbolized by gnawing through tough meat only to taste something rancid. Since punishment is the rule in this hexagram, the auspice is not all bad.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man lacks sufficient power and authority and the culprit does not submit to him. It is like biting through old dried meat and coming upon something poisonous. Some humiliation results but no blame.
Wing: You lack sufficient power and authority to bring about Reform. Your attempts meet with indifference, and you may feel humiliated at your ineffective actions. Yet Reform is necessary, and therefore your endeavors are justified.
Editor: In his commentary Wilhelm emphasizes that "the matter at issue is
an old one.” A magnetic line in a dynamic place suggests weakness or passivity which is unable to deal very effectively with a long-standing problem. Implicit also is the idea of confronting something disagreeable within one's own psyche.
For there are very many kinds of evil which formed the delight of his former life, that is of the old life. These evils cannot all be subdued at once and together; for they cleave tenaciously, since they have been inrooted in the parents for many ages back, and are therefore innate in man, and are confirmed by actual evils from himself from infancy. Swedenborg -- Arcana Coelestia
A. You seem impotent in coming to grips with an old issue. Recognition and acceptance of this are the first steps toward initiating needed reforms.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, shows one gnawing at dried flesh, and finding the yellow gold. Let her be firm and correct, realizing the peril of her position. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Bites on dried lean meat. Receives yellow gold. Perseveringly aware of danger. No blame.
Blofeld: While gnawing dried meat, he encountered a piece of gold embedded in it -- unwavering determination now will bring down trouble, but no error is involved. [If we persist with our plans, trouble will arise; the only comfort we can take is that we shall not be to blame for it.]
Liu: By chewing the dried meat one gains gold. To continue is dangerous. No blame.
Shaughnessy: Biting dry meat and meeting with poison; determination is dangerous; there is no trouble.
Cleary (2): Biting dry meat, finding gold, if one is upright and diligent there will be no blame.
Wu: He bites dried meat and gets yellow gold. He will have no error if he remains perseverant in such a critical situation. [What he bites suggests he still has a hard time simply because he is not strong-minded. A softhearted person vested with the authority of a judge should be perseverant in impartiality.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She will possess every quality appropriate to her position and task. Wilhelm/Baynes: She has found what is appropriate. Blofeld: That we shall not be to blame for the trouble is indicated by the suitable position of this line. Ritsema/Karcher: Acquiring the appropriate indeed. Cleary (2): This is finding what is appropriate. Wu: Because he acts properly.
Legge: The fifth line represents the ruler and judge. As it is a magnetic line, she will be disposed to leniency, and her judgments will be correct. This is shown by her finding the "yellow metal." (Yellow is one of the five "correct" colors.) The position is in the center, but because the line is magnetic, a caution is given, as under the previous line.
Anthony: We would like to be lenient, but our job is to be impartial. To accept an alliance merely because the other person wants it, while they are not firmly committed to being correct, would be wrong. They must realize, through their own perception, that correctness is the only path to an alliance, and that spiritual growth is the source of unity that endures.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: A clear-cut case meets with difficulty because of a tendency to be lenient. The man must be as true as gold and as impartial as the mean.
Wing: Even though there are few alternatives, a decision is difficult to make. Once you choose the course you will take, do not waver from your decision. Remain aware of the dangers and in this way you will surmount them.
Editor: Flesh: Meat, food, nourishment -- the raw material, data or experience of the situation at hand. Dried: Tough, difficult to chew and digest -- difficult to sort out, comprehend or accept as true. Yellow:Color of the mean, of the sun -- suggests wisdom which comes from clarity, balanced perception. Gold: The supreme treasure, Divine Intelligence, truth.
When a man sins, good and evil are intermingled. A legal opinion is a clear separation between the permitted and the forbidden, the clean and the unclean. When you study religious law, good is once again separated from the evil and the sin is rectified. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
A. Sorting out a complex issue involves difficulty, but success is possible -- you have the resources to comprehend the matter.
B. Success lies in making a hard choice.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows one wearing the cangue, and deprived of his ears. There will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: His neck is fastened in the wooden cangue, so that his ears disappear. Misfortune.
Blofeld: He wears a wooden cangue which hides his ears -- misfortune!
Liu: His neck is put in the wooden collar. His ear is injured. Misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wherefore locking-up submerging the ears? Pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Carrying a cangue on the shoulders and with a cut-off ear; inauspicious.
Cleary (2): Wearing a cangue destroying the ears is unfortunate.
Wu: He wears a cangue that covers his ears. There will be foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He wears the cangue and is deprived of his ears -- he hears, but will not understand. Wilhelm/Baynes: He does not hear clearly. Blofeld: This implies dullness of hearing or intellect. [This suggests that, for the present, we should not put much trust in our own judgment.] Ritsema/Karcher: Understanding not brightened indeed. Cleary (2): Means not listening clearly. Wu: Because he hears, but does not heed.
From the Great Treatise: If acts of goodness be not accumulated, they are not sufficient to give its finish to one's name; if acts of evil be not accumulated, they are not sufficient to destroy one's life. The inferior man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not abstain from them. Hence his wickedness becomes great till it cannot be pardoned. This is what theI Ching says, "He wears the cangue and his ears are destroyed: there will be evil."
Legge: The action of the hexagram has passed, and here we have one still persisting in wrongdoing. He is a strong criminal, wearing the cangue and deaf to counsel. Of course the auspice is evil.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is deaf to repeated warnings. Evil accumulates, as he thinks, "Small sins do no harm.” His guilt grows until it cannot be pardoned.
Wing: A person who cannot recognize his own shortcomings will drift farther and farther from the path. A person who is no longer on the path cannot understand the warnings of others. The original text states: "There will be evil.”
Editor: Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines "Cangue" as: "A wooden collar three or four feet square used in oriental countries for confining the neck and sometimes also the hands for punishment.” It is a more severe analogue of the stocks mentioned in the first line of the hexagram.
He who rejects discipline despises his own self; he who listens to correction wins discernment. Proverbs 15: 32
A. You haven't gotten the message and must suffer the consequences of your lack of comprehension.
B. "Deaf to counsel." Stubborn illusions prevent you from making a connection.
Other titles: Revolution(s), Transformation, Skinning, The Bridle, The Symbol of Change, Molting, Leather, Skin, Molt, Cut Off, Changing, Radical Change, Overthrowing
Judgment
Legge: Metamorphosis is believed in only after it has been accomplished. Firm correctness abolishes regret and brings successful progress.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Revolution. On your own day you are believed. Supreme success, furthering through perseverance. Remorse disappears.
Blofeld: Revolution. Not before the day of its completion will men have faith in it -- sublime success! Determination in a righteous course brings reward; regret vanishes! [Very often, this means renovation, as of character, etc. But it may also mean exactly what it says; Confucius, though he regarded loyalty to the ruler as one of the highest virtues, recognized that evil men forfeit their right to rule by their excesses, and it is probable that this notion antedates him by many centuries.]
Liu: Revolution. When the appropriate day comes, the people will believe in it. Great success. It is beneficial to continue. Remorse vanishes.
Ritsema/Karcher: Skinning; before-zenith sun, thereupon conforming. Spring Growing Harvesting Trial. Repenting extinguished. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of stripping away a protective cover. It emphasizes that radically changing and renewing the way you present yourself is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:The Bridle: on the si day then return; prime receipt; beneficial to determine; regret is gone.
Cleary (1): Inrevolution, the sun of the self is truth: This is creative, developmental, fruitful, and perfect. Regret vanishes. [In old texts when it says that the alchemical elixir is in people, but first they have to refine the self and wait for the proper time, this means to make a radical purge of all the pollution of past influences and not let any flaws remain in the heart.]
Cleary (2):Change is believed in on the day it is completed. It is very successful, beneficial if correct. Regret vanishes.
Wu: Reform indicates that revolution will become credible when the time is ripe. In this way, it is great and pervasive and advantageous to be persevering. Regret will disappear.
The Image
Legge: A fire in the marsh -- the image of Metamorphosis. The superior man synchronizes his astronomical calculations to clarify the times and seasons.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Fire in the lake: the image ofRevolution. Thus the superior man sets the calendar in order and makes the seasons clear.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire rising from a marshy lake. The Superior Man regulates the calendar and thus ensures that men are clear about times and seasons.
Liu: Within the lake, fire -- this symbolizes Revolution. The superior man makes a calendar, clearly arranging the seasons.
Ritsema/Karcher: Marsh center possessing fire. Skinning. A chun tzu uses regulating time-reckoning to brighten the seasons.
Cleary (1): There is fire in a lake, changing. Thus do superior people make a calendar and clarify the seasons.
Cleary (2): Fire in a lake – changing. Leaders make calendars to define the seasons.
Wu: There is fire below the marsh; this is Reform. Thus, the jun zi is inspired to develop a calendrical system for keeping time.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Metamorphosis, Water and Fire extinguish each other. When two daughters with opposing viewpoints live together, change is inevitable; but after the change is accomplished, faith is accorded to it: Clarity brings good cheer and progress through what is correct. When a transformation is properly accomplished, all occasion for regret disappears. Heaven and earth undergo their changes, and the four seasons complete their functions. The rulers of old transformed the state in accordance with the will of heaven and in response to the wishes of men. Great indeed is what takes place in a time of change.
Legge: The written character translated as Metamorphosis is used here in the sense of changing. Originally used for the skin of an animal or bird, it received the significance of changing at a very early time. The figure deals with the subject of changes which are called for in the state of the country. The necessity for change is recognized, and hints are given as to the spirit and manner in which they should be brought about.
The Judgment assumes that change is viewed by people generally with suspicion and dislike, and therefore should not be made hastily. [This can refer to inner complexes, habits, etc. – Ed.] When the necessity for change has been proven beforehand and subsequently carried out with firm correctness, then the issue will turn out satisfactorily.
The lower trigram is the symbol for Fire and the upper for Water. Water extinguishes fire, and fire dries up water. Each "changes" the other. The lower trigram is also the second daughter and the upper is the youngest daughter. In the scheme of the trigrams these two are seen to be mutually incompatible.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Hidden within its cocoon the caterpillar becomes a butterfly -- who would believe it until the Metamorphosis was complete?
The Superior Man recognizes that celestial sequences create changes only when they are due; he therefore acts in accordance with the requirements of the times.
The forty-ninth hexagram makes an analogy between the natural Metamorphosisof animal pelts and the proper way to regard radical changes in government. Lines one, five and six all refer to skin, and two, three and four refer to politics. The general idea is that radical transformations occur at their own natural pace -- they cannot be successfully forced any more than eggs can be made to hatch before their time. The Image makes this point in its reference to the celestial correlation of the seasons.
There is a time for everything,
A time for every occupation under heaven:
A time for giving birth,
A time for dying;
A time for planting,
A time for uprooting what has been planted (etc)...
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2
Once one assumes conscious responsibility for the Work, there comes a long and indefinite period in which one labors unceasingly without any visible results at all. Dream images and I Ching meditations will indicate that progress is being made, but the ego's life in spacetime consists of seemingly fruitless labor in the service of a transcendental ideal. This is a universal experience -- it happens to everyone who undertakes the Work. In the Western Mystery Tradition it is known as the Dark Night of the Soul. (See Hexagram Number-36 for further insights into this unavoidable phenomenon.)
The Personality undergoes a willful "death,” surrendering everything that it believes itself to be. Most difficult is that this total surrender of life, this initiatory sacrifice, must precede the experience of cosmic awareness. One is required to give up the totality of one's being, one's very life, in relative darkness, yet in the faith that there will be a resurrection into the Light. R. Wang -- The Qabalistic Tarot
Psychologically interpreted, Metamorphosis means that changes are taking place in the unconscious psyche, but don't expect them to manifest until their growth is complete. The ego must recognize this and persevere with the Work, even when "common sense" counsels otherwise. It is a period of probation and trial, and many there are who fail the test.
There is no short cut without impeding growth or setting the flow pattern of the Soul back, until each physical or psychological function has been correctly connected or developed ... Many aspirants do not perceive this law and become impatient and even lose faith when Providence seems to be holding back. Nothing occurs outside its time as it is part of a sequence in the great cosmic cycle that unfolds the Grand Design of Existence. Z.B.S. Halevi -- Kabbalah and Exodus
If there is any consolation in this terrible ordeal, it is that others have made the journey before you, and survived. Keep the faith that, in the imagery of this hexagram, the lower trigram of Clear Perception following the upper trigram of Cheerfulness will lead you through the most challenging of all transformations.
Where the issue of ultimate meaning is constellated, transformation will eventually occur, even though only by way of a great deal of suffering. E. C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest