MEDITATIONS: I CHING; THE BOOK OF CHANGES, CANTO FORTY-FOUR

Joining—Contact—Coupling
|or| Meeting

A malevolent force is trying to gain a foothold in your life. It is vital to meet it squarely with resoluteness. Rely upon assistance of a small group of friends to put this evil to rout. Be sure to base your actions upon your higher ideals. Make contact with that which is bigger than yourself. (Bright-Fey 117)

Meeting, the woman is strong. Do not marry the woman.

Yin 1: Apply a metal brake. It bodes well to be upright. If you go anywhere, you will see misfortune. An emaciated boar leaps in earnest.

Yang 2: Fish in the bag, there is no fault. It is not beneficial for a guest.

Yang 3: No flesh on the buttocks, walking with difficulty, be wary of danger, and there will be no great fault.

Yang 4: Having no fish in the bag instigates trouble.

Yang 5: Wrapping a melon in willows, embody beauty, and there will be a descent from heaven.

Yang 6: Meeting the horns is regrettable, but there is no blame. (Cleary 271-277)

 The removal of evil requires the disintegration of the self or society which came before. Only once the myriad aspects have been teased apart can pathogens be targeted and selectively carved out. However, the purgation of vice does not imply perfection. Values possess a diverse array of virtue in a given body, time, and place. Some are more fitting than other to occupy higher or lower hierarchical positions, yet all will always jockey for the top spot during the process of meeting—of reintegration.

The hexagram for such a meeting warns of such improper arrangements. There will be a great temptation, a drive toward emotional gratification, which must be contained and made subservient to personal and societal aims toward ideals of propriety, duty, sincerity, and firmness. This is wind under heaven. Within, there is obedience and conformity to the proper Way. Without, there is resolve unbent even by internal gale storms.

The first Yin is such a gale storm. She is the malevolent force or spirit which, if given lease, will wreak havoc on the newly integrated self or society. She is the temptation toward bad habits out of accord with the Way and aimed in an opposite direction from the enlightened ideal. She is likened to a strong woman. Being a woman, no matter how strong she is for her sex, she is thus limited. Those limits prohibit her from overcoming the heavy obstacles which must he pushed uphill on the Path ahead. A man who marries such a woman—a person or civilization which yields to such a weakness—will either follow her into disastrous failure or else become entrenched in in-fighting and power struggles.

It is necessary, therefore, to “apply a metal brake.” That is to say that a rigid refusal to submit to such bad habits and aims is the correct and moral response. This is also the meaning of the second Yang. The first Yin is not to be exterminated or even cast out. She is to be met and contained—that is, she is to be made obedient by balanced firmness and propriety.

This is likely to shrink ones group of friends or associates. Only a small cohort will assist in cultivating what is best for an individual, family, or civilization. Most people are petty, and they will succumb to their own temptations. The third Yang is like this. He is envious of the balanced nature of the second Yang which allows him to “meet with” and integrate the first Yin. His envy estranges him from associating with the second Yang, so he has nowhere to rest, “no flesh on the buttocks.” Without assistance, he also struggles to advance in accordance with the Path. He walks “with difficulty.” His only hope is to recognize that his infatuation with the first Yin is the cause of his demise. A person or society like this likewise must recognize that their values are not properly arranged. They are not aiming at their ideals. Only by changing direction can they save themselves.

Failure to aim correctly and thereby find balance by which one can properly integrate the first Yin results in the position of the fourth Yang. He has “no fish in the bag,” no Yin contained to her functional position. This causes trouble in regard to meeting—meaning integration. This can manifest as an individual at war with himself, constantly self-sabotaging by denying himself necessary rest, nourishment, and pleasures. It can also take the form of society spurning those who do not conform to the norm. There must always be some room for deviants in a culture, otherwise a society will rigidify and die without the inspiration and innovations of artists and entrepreneurs.

But if one is balanced, as is the fifth Yang, than he can reach down like the long, looming branches of a willow and grasp the wisdom of enlightened folk who happen to occupy low societal positions, like low-hanging melons. An individual can do just the same if his ego is balanced. When one’s character has been cultivated to contain a superabundance of virtue, his ego is not threatened by what lies below him. He can see how to meet with his desires in a balanced way—the second Yang containing the first—and can lift those aspect of himself up and express them in his words and behaviors.

Whether personal or societal, the fifth Yang brings about fortune like a gift from heaven.

The sixth Yang, in contrast, makes a massacre of meeting. To meet someone with horns is to gore that person and force her to adhere to a Path that does not belong to her. This is excessive, and, according to Cheng Yi, can only be blamed on him who refuses to meet properly and instead chooses force.

There is also an alternative interpretation of the final clause. “But there is no blame,” may very well mean that as bad as an excess of Yang is during a time of meeting, force lies closer to the mean than does yielding to temptation. It is uglier for certain, embodying none of the “beauty” of the fifth Yang in relation to the second Yang and first Yin; but perhaps ugly and suboptimal order is preferable to inevitable, long-term, wonton chaos.

And that may very well be the meaning of the final line of the Taoist interpretation: “Make contact with that which is bigger than yourself.” When push comes to shove, what is right is submission of the will to the Way, of the subject and its desires to the object and its infinitude. Harmonious meeting is this—not the elimination of desire, but the shaping of it to fit within its proper place.

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.