Following on from a post on hexagram 53, line 1…
‘Wild geese gradually advance to the shore.
The small child, danger,
There are words,
No mistake.’
The obvious question about this line – and I always like to ask the most obvious question – is ‘Why is the small child in danger?’
I believe it’s because we’re at the very beginning of Gradual Development, and just arriving at the shore. The geese are just coming into their home territory, where they must live together. The ‘marriage’ negotiations are just beginning. (The ‘marriage’ of hexagram 53 can stand for any relationship where people must live, grow and make their homes.)
Perhaps before this moment, we were insisting on independence, avoiding being moved by one another, damping down the shockwaves of mutual reactivity. (All this is part of Hexagram 52, Keeping Still.) But now we are entering the realms where we’ll have to work these things out, and (re)create a way to live together.
The child is in danger because the social contract is still being negotiated, and it’s only within that contract that he can be protected and provided for. Relationships are not yet clear, and hence it’s not yet clear where the child fits in.
Provided ‘there are words’, provided any hostility can be overcome, there need be no mistake. But the paired line, 54.6, gives a clear picture of the ultimate danger if the negotiations were to fail:
‘The woman offers a basket with no contents.
The noble sacrifices a goat, with no blood.
No direction brings harvest.’
(If you mark a line on any hexagram, and then turn that hexagram upside down, you’ll see the paired line.)
If she has nothing to offer; if he has no life-force to give (it sounds as though he brought a dead goat); if people are just going through the hollow observances but bringing nothing real: then there would be nothing to be done, no agreement, nothing for the child at all.
The line pathway – which travels through the fan yao and its paired line – shows where this worst-case scenario could arise from, and how it could be avoided. The issues behind the line circle through hexagrams 37 and 38: People in the Home, and Opposition. Who is inside, who is outside? Who belongs, who doesn’t? The ‘marriage hexagrams’, 53 and 54, naturally deepen that question, as the family unit grows and is renewed through marriage with those ‘outside’.
The priority for 53.1 is in hexagram 37: create a home for people. 37.1 shows the first step:
‘With barriers, there is a home.
Regrets vanish.’
To have a home at all, you have to know what’s inside and what’s outside. You have to feel secure within your shared space. However, at the extreme (38.6), a sense of having ‘barriers’ can cause problems…
‘Opposed, alone.
Seeing pigs covered in muck,
Full of ghosts, the one chariot.
At first drawing your bow,
Then relaxing the bow.
Not robbers at all, but matrimonial allies.
Going on meets the rain, and so there is good fortune.’
All the signs seem to show that those approaching are a threat, and you hold your bowstring taut, ready to defend. It comes as a great relief to realise that homes don’t actually need defending against potential marriage partners. They’re made of both barriers and relationships with what’s beyond them.
So the desire behind 53.1 is for a secure, well-defined home; the danger is of wanting that security so much that one becomes suspicious, and defends the space against all comers. The challenge is to negotiate an equilibrium between security and relationship, for all its tendency to invite in the unknown. Then ‘there are words, no mistake.’
How appropriate for all of us whose lives interact with others who have “marraiges” and “homes” – but who don’t have the vitality and nourshment in that belonging in the home implies – and this makes a crisis in the area of who belongs and who does not!!! Thank you – Glen
My tuppence-
I don’t read Li as just danger, although that’s involved.
More like high stress and difficulty.
The origial character was a “grindstone” – something that
can grind you down, bit by bit
53.1, 1st 6, Zhi Gua 37: Jia Ren, Family Members
(Fan Yao 37.1: boundaries maintain the family, regrets pass)
The wild geese advance by degrees to the shoreline
The little fledgling* is struggling
There will be criticism
But not blame
53.1x The little fledgling is having difficulties:
Deserving no blame
The wild geese cross the great water, returning from their migration, bringing their
latest fledgling. They approach with the same formation, the same steady bearing
and wingbeats they began their journey with. But now they need to rest their wings
in a place their youngster has not seen before. The young one is weak, and in an odd place, and he’s struggling to stay in formation. Strange noises assail him, echoing in the cliffs, the other birds, giving odd and discomforting glances, squawk doubtfully. It is known that a predator waits, since not all of the fledglings survive, or can prove their worth and grow old, but this youngster has never seen one. As small as he is, he would make a pretty good meal. Education will be a long and serious business, and it begins with the language and signals. Constructive critique might save his life.
Messed that post up. Saw no way to edit or correct it.
It’s not so messed up. Good to have a name with the post, anyway.
When I was looking into li, etymology of, I found a rock and a scorpion: something that’s a lot less dangerous if you know where it is, like the predator.
Sometimes this line seems to imply a young one of whom things are expected, and who needs to learn the terrain in a hurry – but sometimes the child is far too young and dependent for such expectations.