The nature of Radical Change

There seem to be two distinct streams of ideas flowing in Hexagram 49, Radical Change.

First, it’s arguably the apex, along with Hexagram 50, of the great historical narrative of the Zhou conquest.

‘Radical Change puts away the old; the Vessel grasps renewal.’

The old regime is overthrown here; the new one will be founded with the Vessel. In readings this means thinking about who or what is in charge in a situation: where is the centre of power, and what are the governing principles?

Then there’s the second stream – perhaps an older, deeper one – that’s heard in the old character for ‘Radical Change’ and the text of three of the changing lines. ‘Radical Change’ is literally an animal hide spread to dry; the same word means ‘leather’. And lines 1, 5 and 6 talk about animals: line one speaks of ‘binding using the leather of a yellow ox’ – or the radical change of a yellow ox; lines 5 and 6 refer to the noble one’s ‘tiger change’ and ‘leopard change’.

This suggests a ritual of putting on an animal’s skin to take on its qualities. Put on the tiger’s skin, and you can invoke its spirit, absorb its essence, and change your own identity. Wu Jing Nuan writes that,

‘You must have the costume of a tiger to assume the actions of a tiger. Assumption of different guises may be used to penetrate other aspects of your destiny. But in order to change your destiny, your entire appearance must change with sincerity.’

So there is radical change through political revolution, and radical change through shamanism. The two streams seem utterly separate, but there is a way in which they converge.

The essential reason for the Zhou to overthrow the Shang wasn’t a lust for political power, nor even an altruistic desire to help the people. This Radical Change became necessary (and possible) because the old regime had forfeited the Mandate of Heaven: they had fallen out of relationship with their spiritual source and roots. A government that could not connect the people, through the ancestors, with Heaven was no government at all.

And so Radical Change was necessary, to restore that connection. Hence the need to make the change with fu, ‘truth and confidence’, and at the right moment. Right timing is a way of alignment with heaven, something that’s reflected in both Judgement and Image.

So a new government – a new way of living – turns out to be not so far removed from a new skin: a change you make to the outer layers that restores an authentic relationship with spirit.