MEDITATIONS: I CHING; THE BOOK OF CHANGES, CANTO EIGHTEEN

Reduce—Distill—Destroy
|or| Degeneration

Look for an opportunity to correct the mistakes of your forbearers. These could be blood ancestors or previous people who used to hold your position. Now is not the time to show weakness or hesitancy of any kind. Be direct, firm, and analytical as you work silently for the common good. (Bright-Fey 65)

When there is degeneration, there is great success. It is beneficial to cross great rivers.
Three days before the beginning, three days after the beginning.

Yin 1: If there is a son to take good care of the father’s affairs, the late father is blameless. Work hard, and the end will be auspicious.

Yang 2: Taking care of the mother’s affairs, it will not do to be adamant.

Yang 3: Taking care of the affairs of the father, there is a little regret, but no great fault.

Yin 4: Easygoing about the affairs of the father, go further and you experience regret.

Yin 5: Taking care of the affairs of the father employing the reputable.

Yang 6: Not serving kings and lords, one makes one’s concerns loftier. (Cleary 99-106)

Following after delight ultimately leads to decadence, decay, and degeneration. This is inevitable, as the conditions which give rise to virtue are antithetical to the products of virtue—just as the conditions which degenerate virtue are antithetical to vice: one bring about the other as a matter of course. So now the I Ching has detailed the downward path that must be tread before the next mountain can be ascended.

It is proper, then, that the hexagram for Degeneration is made of the trigrams wind under mountain. Wind is obedience, initiation, and penetration. Experienced internally, it is the impetus to serve and thereby solve problems. Mountain is stillness, stabilization, and cessation. In its external expression it means a stagnation of institutions and cultural norms—senility, in other words, the degeneration of traditions clung to for the sake of the delights they formerly delivered but no longer do.

Translator and practicing Taoist Bright-Fey’s poem inspired by his reflection on this canto describes the situation in archetypal imagery:

Mountains contain invisible winds
Nourishing sleeping dragons not yet full grown
While wizards above search for an antidote
To poison, with poisons. (Bright-Fey 64)

The mountains are the old, crumbling cultural edifices built by the virtuous men of bygone times. They contain unseen winds, wind being the breath of life which animates, which inspires and motivates the “sleeping dragons”—the new generation of virtuous men whose duty it shall be to revitalize the now gray, craggy, and dead mountains. Until they wake, however, the old wizards—those arrogant fools who believe themselves to be masters over the Way—try to bend the universe to their wills. They are politicians and preachers ostensibly trying to cure social ills, but their potions meant to transform society do nothing but accelerate its degeneration.

However, not all is doom and gloom; for in degeneration, there is opportunity for regeneration and restoration. Rot and refuse are also fertilizer for future harvests. Thus does the I Ching assert that in degeneration there can be great success. Responsibility abdicated is opportunity opened to those who will shoulder up under the weight. This is the first Yin, obedience at the outset. Though the institutions may be corrupt and decadent, if the son sets his heart right and pursues his duty in spite of the incompetence and immorality of those above him, he can be ready when the time comes to take over his father’s affairs. This is learning to lead by first learning to follow. The former must come first, just as the camel must come before the lion in Nietzsche’s three metamorphoses.

The same can be said of the second Yang. In this case, initiation is balance and in proper correspondence with the fifth Yin in the position of leadership. This represents taking care of the mother’s affairs. The mother is not able to take care of her affairs on her own—however, she cannot simply be advised; honest critiques will too sorely hurt her feelings. Therefore, the son must take a balanced approach when obeying and serving an incompetent leader. He has to take initiative, but he can’t seem to be in opposition to the leadership who delegated to him the responsibility he now shoulders.

The third Yang is in the position of excess, and there is bound to be excess. However, the I Ching focuses on the lack of great fault as opposed to achieving without any fault at all. This suggests that it is better to take responsibility and to accidently take on too much or to be too adamant than to not take on enough. The Aristotelean mean lies closer to excess and deficiency in this case, it seems.

Moving on from internal motivations and decisions to the external and social expression, the fourth Yin represents the current norm when it comes to taking responsibility—that is, people are generally “easygoing,” meaning they lack the requisite severity. Their heart are not in their duties, and so standards have fallen and degenerated. Such people, the weak men of failing times, cannot successfully pursue their ends, for they are the muck makers of their own generation, and any attempt bear a heavy load will only result in their being crushed under the weight of it. Entrust such people not with delegated responsibility.

On the other hand, the fifth Yin, presiding in a position of leadership, has a proper correspondent in the second Yang. This is like a weak leader who employs competent advisors. Though he himself is incapable of leading, if he recognizes this fact, he can find and employ those “sleeping dragons” who have cultivated their characters instead of indulging in the over-ripe fruits of the bygone generation.

At the peak of the mountain, at the place of external excess, is the total withdrawal from corrupt society. While this will be proper for some who, due to their honesty and virtue, cannot find their place in a rotten society and culture, for many, this is an avoidance strategy. In the former case, concerns turn inward toward spiritual matters. Such people focus on themselves and their character and become like monks or nuns. In the latter case, people fall pray to distractions. Ostensibly, they turn their aims upward to higher achievement, but really their aims are too lofty to ever accomplish in such a time of degeneration. These are the easygoing types who—brain-addled by the wizards—play-act at everything. Their pretenses of lofty concern are just that, a façade to gain reputation with others. For such people, it would be better for them and everyone else if they were to remain in the position of the fourth Yin and allow the “sleeping dragons” to awaken.

I Ching; The Book of Changes, with commentaries by Cheng Yi, translated by Thomas Cleary, Shambala Library, 2003.

I Ching: The Book of Changes; An authentic Taoist translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2006.