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

Draw—Approach—Nearby
|or| Overseeing

Now is the time for you to act in a forward-looking manner. Be on the lookout for those who would get in your way and impede you. When you encounter individuals who behave like this, deal with it in a mature and relaxed way. (Bright-Fey 67)

Overseeing is very successful, beneficial if correct.
In the eighth month there is misfortune.

Yang 1: Moving overseeing bodes well if correct.

Yang 2: Moving overseeing is auspicious, beneficial all around.

Yin 3: Complacent overseeing has no benefit; if you are concerned about this, then there will be no fault.

Yin 4: Consummate overseeing is blameless.

Yin 5: Overseeing by knowledge is appropriate for a great leader, and bodes well.

Yin 6: Attentive overseeing is auspicious and impeccable. (Cleary 106-110)

Canto nineteen does not so much as follow the eighteenth, Degeneration, as it does swap perspectives from the observer to the participant. For all the same wavering factors are said to be present in the institutions of governance and leadership. There is weakness and incompetence in the highest positions. However, the hexagram features the trigrams of lake within and earth without—that is, joy and pleasure are the internal states, while externally there is yielding and receptivity.

That is why the Taoist interpretation says that now is the time to look forward into the future. Yang initiative and ability is rising from the bottom rungs of society. These are the young men cultivating their characters during hard times. Surely, many obstacles lie-in-wait along their paths: these are people and their decadent cultural habits normalized during a time of excess ease. But if said stumbling blocks and bad influences are dealt with properly—maturely, in a gradual, compensative, and complimentary way—than those overseeing the development of society can relinquish responsibility to those who deserve it, and all can benefit (as opposed to a revolutionary take-over by way of force; that is the “eighth month” in which misfortune is likely occur as a result of the leadership suddenly becoming active, assuming itself competent because of the beneficial cultivation of those below).

But if responsibility, abdicated already by incompetent and weak superiors, is delegated to individuals who take joy in bearing their burdens, then there is benefit for everyone involved. That is the meaning of the first two Yangs. Whether their corresponding Yins be in positions of minor or major leadership, if responsibility is shouldered voluntarily by those actually capable of bearing it without becoming bitter and resentful, than the jobs get done, the spirit of the law is upheld, and children are molded into respectable citizens. This is because those doing the work aren’t just doing so—they are role models for loving the necessary hardships and difficulties of life. These people take their roles of their own volition, and they would not choose to do otherwise. Such inspires admiration: a mirroring—others shall be inspired to cultivate virtue by their example.

It should be warned, however, that one can take this principle too far. The third Yin warns on such cases. It is one thing to voluntarily shoulder responsibility, but it is another thing to become complacent with how things are. One must simultaneously accept the current conditions while also accepting he should work to remedy them. If someone takes pleasure only in the former, he will not take responsibility but merely accept it from those above him only to set it down instead of carrying it forward. Now, if one is wary of this caveat, he needs not worry, for in his concern he will be spurred to shoulder his burden.

The fourth and fifth Yins are those correspondents for the first and second Yangs. They represent the weak leaders and inheritors of power, influence, and wealth. If they recognize the limits of their wisdom and moral fortitude, they can take virtue in humility and delegate to those wiser and more able rising from below. There is no limit to this. Even the sixth Yin acknowledges that yielding is what is proper for a weak individual at the highest of overseeing positions. Extreme overseeing in this case is attentiveness, which is proper for Yin. Such a leader’s utmost possible accomplishment is to discern who should step into his place after him. Thus can their be virtue in humility even among the weak and undeserving.

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.