In the Words of Change glossary (coming up within the next week or two) I’ve written this about constancy, zhen:
“…We have a vision of the future – not what’s inevitably going to happen, but what it is right for us to bring into being. You can conceive of this as a call from the spirits to make a new pattern real on earth; if you or the person you’re reading for are uncomfortable with the idea of a spiritual realm, you can speak instead of referring everything back faithfully to personal ideals and goals.
It’s worth noticing that zhen is often modified by another word. There are ways and ways of moving through the world while staying aligned and connected with an inspiration. Your reading might have you ask yourself how a woman would be constant in your situation – or a mare – or a hermit – or a warrior…”
Zhen is described as one of the ‘four virtues’, but in practice Yi doesn’t always recommend it. Sometimes this quality of persistence – loyalty to the original inspiration, determination to carry it through – is called for, sometimes not. It has the potential to tip over from determination into doggedness, a failure to respond fluently to change.
(This idea’s introduced at hexagram 3, line 5, which draws a contrast between ‘small constancy’ that works well at these beginning stages, and ‘great constancy’ that doesn’t. I think it suggests that there are ways to remain true to the essence without insisting on the way it should be realised.)
Studying the characteristics of different line positions recently, it occurred to me to look at the way zhen shows up in each place. When’s it an unambiguously good idea, and when might it be risky, shameful, or just disastrous?
Very roughly (as this is only a quick count, and sometimes constancy can be dangerous, but still the best choice), I found that constancy was most likely to be an excellent idea at lines 1, 2 and 5; lines 3 and 4 mostly found it good, but could go either way (especially line 3). But at line 6, where constancy is mentioned least often, it’s actually twice as likely to be described as a bad (or risky, or shameful) idea. (You can review this yourself in the final lines of hexagrams 9, 11, 35, 41, 46, 49, 57, 60 and 61.)
Constancy is about connection and loyalty to first principles; it’s about carrying something through. So it’s a reliable guide when finding your feet in a situation and forming connections within it (lines 1 and 2), and for taking responsibility and bringing out its full potential at line 5. Line 6 is the time to move on from a situation, open up for new inspirations and be ready to change direction.
I love the way patterns like this show up wherever it dawns on me to look at them!