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

Great—Unwise—Strength
|or| Great Power

Be very cautious when using power or strength of any kind. Wise force isn’t rash or undirected. It is specific rather than wasteful. Attempt to see the big picture and make specific plans based upon this overview. Avoid all pettiness and obsession. (Bright-Fey 97)

Great power is beneficial if correct.

Yang 1: With power in the feet, it bodes ill to go on an expedition. There is truth in this.

Yang 2: Correctness is auspicious.

Yang 3: Small people use power, enlightened people use negation. It is dangerous to be unbending. A ram butting a fence gets its horns stuck.

Yang 4: Be correct, and you will be lucky and have no regret. The fence opened up, it does not impede. Power is in the hubs of a large vehicle.

Yin 5: Losing the rams at ease, one has no regret.

Yin 6: The ram that has run into the fence cannot withdraw and cannot go ahead. Nothing is gained. Difficulty leads to good fortune. (Cleary 199-205)

Naturally, the time for withdrawal is followed by a time of expansion. This expansion is the possession and application of Great Power, physical, political, or otherwise.

Internal power is creativity, and external power is movement: that is heaven below and thunder above; and like a great shaking high in the sky, thunder above heaven sounds loud a forewarning of the immense consequences of the exercise of force.

Therefore, the I Ching calls for judiciousness. The text differentiates between power wielded wisely and power abused by the foolish, hence the emphasis on correctness.

The first Yang describes the latter case, when one uses strength to force one’s will at the outset. Even if one is in the possession of power, if he engages with others this way, he will inevitably meet with disaster. To be in a low position in which rightful authority has not been earned and then to compel others is to earn their spite, hatred, and resentment. Perhaps the tyrant can crush his subjects for an instant, but he cannot rest, so assured is he that they will be plotting their revenge at every opportunity.

The second Yang is just the opposite of the first. Being in a balanced position, the Yang has power but achieves his ends without using it. He does so by turning that power inward. When confronted with the options of involuntary imposition of himself onto others or self-transformation via the transvaluation of his values, he overcomes himself and learns to affirm that which he formerly denied. This is yet another way to say that, in proper correspondence with the fifth Yin above, the second Yang represents the accordance of the self with the Way.

The forth Yang describes how abstaining from using force is what actually opens the doors which allow for one with great power to advance in collaboration with others. That is the meaning of power being contained within the hub of a wheel. The hub is the strong center which holds many spokes. Without the hub, the wheel would collapse, but without the spokes, the wheel would be too small or two cumbersome to get very far. People with power are like this. No one can do it all himself. He needs others, and if those others join the powerful persons cause of their own accord, then they will form a harmony together and go forward.

The prior advance is led by the person embodying the fifth Yin. To lead with yin is to do so by yielding. Instead of lording over one’s employees, subordinates, or subjects, he should give them free reign to participate in his grand plans—so long as his plans conform or propriety, duty, honor, and benevolence. It is the rightness which makes yielding Yin correct in this position of leadership and not the other way around. If virtue comes first, than freedom may happily follow.

If virtue does not come first, then power is used in excess. This results in a state of weakness, as one will eventually hit resistance and get stuck like a ram smashing his horns into a fence. In the west, we say that, “To a man with only a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” That is the case here, and until this sixth Yin learns that brute power cannot solves her problems, she will remain stuck in place, unable to take alternative action and thereby reach a resolution.

However, even in this difficulty, there is not despair—for from hardship is virtue cultivated.

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.