I’ve been reading Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, and just reached the chapter on the power of expectations to change perception. The introductory example comes from sport: the supporters of two rival teams watch the same key, game-deciding moment, and for one of them the ball (or player, or something – it’s American football, so it’s all Greek to me…) is obviously conspicuously in, and for the other it’s just as obviously out.

“Although both friends were watching the same game, they were doing so through markedly different lenses. One saw the pass as in bounds. The other saw it as out. In sports, such arguments are not particularly damaging – in fact, they can be fun. The problem is that these same biased processes can influence how we experience other aspects of our world. These biased processes are in fact a major source of escalation in almost every conflict…”

This will all sound very familiar to anyone who’s read Hexagram 38, Opposing:

‘Opposing.
Small affairs, good fortune.’

Opposing and Diverging has to do with differences in vision – ‘looking askance’, in LiSe’s translation: watching the same things through different lenses, and seeing something different. This is good fortune in small affairs, such as sport; not good in great affairs, such as international conflicts.

The chapter also describes various experiments designed to show how expectations ‘program’ us to perceive differently – and also, interestingly enough, to discover ways that such programming could be overcome.

For instance, it turns out that the flavour of a certain beer can be improved by the addition of a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Offer people the original and improved versions in a blind taste test, and they tend to prefer the one with vinegar. Tell them in advance that one glass contains vinegar, and they tend to find it revolting. But tell them about the added vinegar after they’ve tried the beer, and they still like it.

So if you remove the context of expectations,* perceptions become clearer. Presumably if the two sports fans had been unable to identify which team was which, they’d have agreed about where the ball (or the player) landed.

I think this casts new light on 38.2 -

‘Meeting a master in the lane.
Not a mistake.’

This line hasn’t overcome the power of expectations to bias vision altogether – that happens in line 6, I think, where defences are lowered and apparent robbers turn out to be potential allies. Instead, it’s removed the context that sets expectations: the lane is a neutral place, nobody’s home ground, free from formalities and rules. This line’s zhi gua (the hexagram it moves to) is 21, Biting Through: it represents the most direct way to overcome the gulf of separation in 38, creating unity and insight. What you encounter here might still be quite different, even alien to you, but in the absence of preconceptions it can be a master and guide.

Hi Hilary,

Perhaps translating the American football reference to Wimbledon tennis will make the Greek characters more readable.

Expectations are surely a source of much pain, however a bit of context is always helpful. In terms of beer, it is objectively a bitter drink (as in pint of bitter in the English pub). Our bitter taste bud is actually a pH sensor of alkali which is neutralized by food acids such as vinegar. Balsamic vinegar would remove alkali and add some sugar and other grape flavors which should improve the taste of at least some certain beer.

Is the nature of hex 38 given by some set of words used to describe it or any set of words or by the whole of the hexagram or at least its component trigrams?

Many traditional commentaries refer to hex 38 as referring to the sibling rivalry of the two younger daughter stuck at home waiting for their own suitors to marry them. From such notions hex 38 is about opportunities obstructed by petty bickering. It isn't just the same external reality seen through different lenses it is different people with different interests stuck together in the same lack of opportunity.

Hex 38.2 then depends upon the meaning of 'lane' or 'narrow street' or 'alley' as some sort of neutral ground? It is more likely about it being a more or less private place where the meeting can happen without the formal publicity that is being obstructed. This is the 2nd line, the place of local organization or understanding (your legs under stand you [cf. Shakespeare]. It is a Yang line (a ruler of this hexagram) so the active focus is expressing and exhausting itself, turning trigram Dui to Chen and the hexagram to 21 the active chewing through of obstacles to achieve justice.

Is this hexagram about differences in perspective and this line about changing the venue to get fresh perspective? I don't think so. Hex 38 is about different people who share some connections but also differ in their desires and future development. They will eventually resolve their obstacles and enjoy being sisters again (when they each have their own households after they marry). This line shows how they can advance their interests by finding their own semi-private rendezvous with their own love interest in the alley to move along the process of getting their suitors to come knock on the front door with formal marriage courtship.

Line 6 is another Yang line expressing and exhausting itself to bring forward the transition to the Next timing. Is this a lowering of defenses to turn potential robbers into allies? Or rather an expression of action by our sisters to get out of their parents house--accepting the advances they receive rather than rejecting them. Has their judgment these are lustful overtures changed or just their dreams of waiting for Prince Charming replaced by realizations they won't be young and attractive forever and the offer to be a concubine isn't so bad as long as it gets you a new household (hex 38.6 >>hex 54).

Frank

hilary said:

I think this casts new light on 38.2 -

‘Meeting a master in the lane.
Not a mistake.’

This line hasn’t overcome the power of expectations to bias vision altogether – that happens in line 6, I think, where defences are lowered and apparent robbers turn out to be potential allies. Instead, it’s removed the context that sets expectations: the lane is a neutral place, nobody’s home ground, free from formalities and rules. This line’s zhi gua (the hexagram it moves to) is 21, Biting Through: it represents the most direct way to overcome the gulf of separation in 38, creating unity and insight. What you encounter here might still be quite different, even alien to you, but in the absence of preconceptions it can be a master and guide.

Click to expand...

I like that. I had conect that line in my mind with unexpected meeting but here you say without expectations. Interesting !

Frank, it's great that we see Hexagram 38 so differently! And especially line 2 - meeting a potential suitor in the lane? New and interesting idea, and why not?

I wouldn't get too preoccupied with the two sisters from the commentary, though. They cast light, but I don't think they're necessarily the whole story. A 'whole story' for Hexagram 38 would include the ideas of divergence, opposition, vision and visions (big theme in the lines as well as the character), prediction, orphans, ghosts, outsiders (contrast with 37, insiders)... and the two sisters who "may live together, but their aspirations do not pursue the same path" (Lynn's translation). Amongst other things.

The meeting in the lane... a meeting we can't avoid, unlike a meeting in a broad street? An informal, unscheduled meeting, hence one without expectations laid out in advance? An unexpected meeting? Or all the above - it all makes the meeting possible in the midst of Opposition.

hilary said:

‘Opposing.
Small affairs, good fortune.’

This is good fortune in small affairs, such as sport; not good in great affairs, such as international conflicts.


So if you remove the context of expectations,* perceptions become clearer. Presumably if the two sports fans had been unable to identify which team was which, they’d have agreed about where the ball (or the player) landed.

I think this casts new light on 38.2 -

‘Meeting a master in the lane.
Not a mistake.’

This line hasn’t overcome the power of expectations to bias vision altogether – that happens in line 6, I think, where defences are lowered and apparent robbers turn out to be potential allies. Instead, it’s removed the context that sets expectations: the lane is a neutral place, nobody’s home ground, free from formalities and rules. This line’s zhi gua (the hexagram it moves to) is 21, Biting Through: it represents the most direct way to overcome the gulf of separation in 38, creating unity and insight. What you encounter here might still be quite different, even alien to you, but in the absence of preconceptions it can be a master and guide.

Click to expand...

thank you for addressing this line Hilary, it's a line I find very interesting and it was great to read your thoughts on it . . I do have a question though about the hexagram's judgement, where it says "Small affairs, good fortune" . . when i first read this I thought it meant that little things, small signs, details, the slight whispers we might get from the situation we're in, are good guides in biting through and reaching the master and guide, but you seem to hint at something different here . . does this mean that these 'whispers', these narrow passings are only good for limited application, maybe to get us started in getting to the big stuff, which then need to comply with 21's image of " kings of former times that made firm the laws through clearly defined penalties"? . . maybe the cross eyed looking here is something to not stuff ourselves with as in the fan yao 21.2, cause it could cloud our finer sensibilities? . . would love to read your thoughts on this (as well as anyone else's of course )

:bows:

hilary said:

Frank, it's great that we see Hexagram 38 so differently! And especially line 2 - meeting a potential suitor in the lane? New and interesting idea, and why not?

I wouldn't get too preoccupied with the two sisters from the commentary, though. They cast light, but I don't think they're necessarily the whole story. A 'whole story' for Hexagram 38 would include the ideas of divergence, opposition, vision and visions (big theme in the lines as well as the character), prediction, orphans, ghosts, outsiders (contrast with 37, insiders)... and the two sisters who "may live together, but their aspirations do not pursue the same path" (Lynn's translation). Amongst other things.

The meeting in the lane... a meeting we can't avoid, unlike a meeting in a broad street? An informal, unscheduled meeting, hence one without expectations laid out in advance? An unexpected meeting? Or all the above - it all makes the meeting possible in the midst of Opposition.

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Hi Hilary,

Basing one's interpretation upon words, especially translated words is always fraught with difficulties--why context is so important. The context for this hexagram is family love and the trigrams as two younger sisters are the simplest metaphor. Taking them as Fire and Lake highlights their essential separateness and difference or with more effort that they both share an element of dependence--Li as clinging to its fuel, Dui as controlled by the flowing water that is being accumulated in the topography (cf. hex 47 where Kan drains Dui). However, the overall reality of this hexagram is first and foremost in its number placement and total structure which then is explained in detail by its components.

The 38th Hexagram is of the set of monogamous love (hex 31) in the 8th position completing the x-axis or time dimension of the dichotomy of family structure and dynamics that begins in hex 37 structure and eventually runs to hex 38 sibling rivalry expressed as Opposition or Screens (Screams). Loving families still have arguments and for all their fundamental love screaming fights that are also the basis for future development and networking.

This is the hexagram expressing the need to separate conflicting parties so each can do their own thing rather than fight about their differences. The other words you find in hex 38 I would see as part of the connotations of "Screens" which channel or focus vision by hiding what they don't display.

In terms of the lines, overall hex 38 has 4 Yang lines and therefore it is about process more than situation, the two open Yin places in the 3rd and 5th place so the process is open as to personal passion or overall organization--the sisters caught inside by the rainy day may be yelling and pulling each others hair, but only out of boredom/frustration.

In terms of individual lines, the second line deals with structure or local organization. In a hexagram of Screens or the interplay of opposition and opportunity, this line seeks to express and exhaust its local situation to achieve completion of its overall process. It is a ruler of the hexagram showing how to succeed in this situation. It is a Yang line in relation to the Yin line in the 5th place, thus it finds a way to meet and relate with its lord, master or future husband in the alley or lane (perhaps since the 5th line is a bit timid and the 2nd line is quite strong but their relationship is strong).

Taking the translated words as important, narrow street or lane (or better Gia-Fu's alley) don't clearly express much. An unexpected meeting? An unavoidable meeting or unscheduled or what? What do these secondary street words really mean? Can you give some more background to how you take the words and find your interpretation? Mine I have indicated come from several perspectives through the placement and structure of the hexagram and its lines all showing how this line is an active agent in resolving the difficulties and grasping the opportunities by its strong character and resourceful activities to achieve the relationship success available moving toward the resultant hexagram 21 where the opposition is bitten through and justice succeeds.

Frank

hilary said:

‘Meeting a master in the lane.
Not a mistake.’

This line hasn’t overcome the power of expectations to bias vision altogether – that happens in line 6, I think, where defences are lowered and apparent robbers turn out to be potential allies. Instead, it’s removed the context that sets expectations: the lane is a neutral place, nobody’s home ground, free from formalities and rules. This line’s zhi gua (the hexagram it moves to) is 21, Biting Through: it represents the most direct way to overcome the gulf of separation in 38, creating unity and insight. What you encounter here might still be quite different, even alien to you, but in the absence of preconceptions it can be a master and guide.

Click to expand...

In the Li thread, the Bodhisattva has been mentioned, and together with this thread it makes me think of the Jun Zi, who is on the way up, meeting a Bodhisattva on his way down.

If line 2 is the ruler, then the solution seems to be to change one's mind, metanoia in Greek (which was translated in the King James Bible as "repentance"): Meta - transference, or simply transformation. Noia - from Nous, meaning the mind.

The metaphor of the cave in Plato's Republic : The people inside the cave can only look upon the shadows cast upon the wall of the cave before them. Light comes to them from a great fire burning behind them, higher up, and at a distance. Located between this fire and the people of the cave is a road at a higher level; along this road a low wall has been built. Here other people have puppets which they use to cast the shadows upon the cave wall. These shadows are given names by the people in the cave, and they consider them to be real things. However anyone outside of the cave in the bright sunlight would no longer see the shadows (or be under the illusion manifested by the puppet show). The people inside the cave cannot stand the bright light of the sun outside, and so always turn their eyes to the shadow wall.

It seems to me that the Yijing is a book that creates meaning with the combination of words (working on umpteen different levels at once) and structures (likewise). Human brains being what they are, it's generally necessary to concentrate more on one of these than the other to bring out its complexities; the natural inclination then is to decide that whatever we're not drawn to is less important.

It ain't necessarily so.

And I'm talking to myself here as well as to Frank - the structures fascinate me, but I find it easier to think in words, metaphors and stories, so that's mostly what I write about. For some people the structures will be a refuge from the sheer diversity of translations and/or the unquantifiable nature of poetic metaphor. Luckily for us, the Yijing creates meaning with the combination of words and structures, and has enough space to be a playground for different 'specialist minds'.

Anyway, my 'structural' take on 38 begins with its pair in 37 (yes, I know not everyone is so interested in pairs ), the simple contrast of those inside and outside the home. And looking at line 2 begins both with thinking of it as the inner centre, the place to relate from, and also with its zhi gua, 21. I ask myself how this can be 'opposition's biting through', so I'm on the alert for themes of getting through obstacles and reaching unity and insight... and in a way, the text of the line can be read as a solution to the 'riddle' of how these hexagrams can meet.

I also look at the line pathway... how this line might feel like or have access to the wisdom of 21.2 reaching out towards 22.5, where commitment and willingness has greater weight than caution, discrimination and decorum. And just as I look at 37-38 as a unit to understand 38, I'll also look at 37.5-38.2 as a unit... just as the paired hexagrams are different perspectives on the same landscape, could the paired lines be different tellings of the same story? Or the continuation of a single story?

As to how I find the interpretation... by the time I've asked a bunch of questions about the above, lived through a few experiences with the line, and just read it as poetry, the interpretations tend to find me.

P.S. Forgot to quote Thomas - aka Pocossin - someone else who's drawn to structure more than language, though in a very unusual way. He's commented on the original blog post:

Instant replay — the objective eye of the camera — resolves differences in vision in football, but what is the objective basis for “One meets his lord in a narrow street.” I think the image comes from place in sequence (inverse of the togetherness of The Family), the place of the line (line 2 = movement), and the sequence of constituent trigrams (Dui — Li — Kan — Li). The lane is narrow, the two meet in opposition (face to face), and the person of lesser rank stands aside. No blame.

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hilary said:

It seems to me that the Yijing is a book that creates meaning with the combination of words (working on umpteen different levels at once) and structures (likewise). Human brains being what they are, it's generally necessary to concentrate more on one of these than the other to bring out its complexities; the natural inclination then is to decide that whatever we're not drawn to is less important.

....

the structures fascinate me, but I find it easier to think in words, metaphors and stories, so that's mostly what I write about.

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Your making the distinction between mythic vs directed thinking. See such as:

Jung, C., (1967)"Two Kinds of Thinking" in "Symbols of Transformation"

Your focus on narratives etc reflects your education level where advanced education focuses on differentiations, on the making of distinctions and communication of such and so a bias to asymmetry where the use of serial language reflects attempts to mediate meanings - the prose leads to a conclusion that is the 'response' to the stimulus - it is not immediate, it has to go through the sequencing to 'get the message' etc.

Mythic thinking is more in tune with the core symmetry of the I Ching and covers immediate experience as sensory experience and so of visions, auditions, smells, tastes etc where what is experienced are the secondary harmonics of senses and these elicit emotional responses.

Behind the emotional content that covers local context unconscious communications are the hexagrams as universals (and so no emotional biases). To communicate with the unconscious we have to use emotional means, holistic experience, to extract the universal - it does not matter the colouring of the emotions, we can use questions to give us the local emotional biases of the universal and so identify the universal at work overall.

Work on languages in general, and the neurological/cognitive dynamics in particular, have brought out the compressed elements present in mythic thinking when in the form of layered dichotomies that sum to an overall, holistic, form. As such we can get more information than is usually considered possible from these six line symbols using the basic tools of logic (where such precede language and as such impose grammar on language).

Thus the JOIN of the mythic and the directed is to use the extraction of universal data from the mythic side and then add details from the directed side that can, in turn, refine the experience of the mythic side.

Hi Hilary,

I added my thanks to your post since in this exposition you went a long way toward explaining your perspective. And since you called me out by name let me explain some. First of all, I worked with Gia-Fu Feng on his Taoist translation of the words and poetry of the I Ching, in your dichotomy, before I went on to discover the insight that a few simple principles explained the meaning of the hexagrams from their line pattern or structure. Then after that I worked on developing a new set of American names for the hexagrams based upon the further insight that there were special similarities in the linguistics of Chinese and American English that could be used to find parallel contemporary American metaphors for the ancient Chinese.

Then beyond that I later found that what had been dismissed of Pythagoras' Tetraktys, the most sacred and amazing insight to their school, as merely the equation 1+2+3+4= 10, was truly remarkable philosophical insight that a complete analysis of any subject requires integrating the Monad, Dyad, Triad, and Tetrad perspectives. Applying that insight to the King Wen Sequence--once I returned to its original form of dividing the I Ching into two 'halves' after the first 30 hexagrams leaving the rest of the 64 hexagrams in the second half [rather than assuming it must be a checkerboard of contrasting pairs] gave a second explanation of each hexagram by only its placement in the KWS.

It also showed that the famous pairing of each even-numbered hexagram as the inverse in line structure of the preceding odd-numbered hexagram was mistaking the rhyme scheme for the essential structure of the hexagrams. (Imagine doing that with any other poetry and how would any academic react?!)

So, my background is in both the poetry and the structure of the hexagrams of the I Ching, not denigrating one for the other due to a lack of attention to both. I am most proud that through the many turns of my research over the 40 years of my I Ching experience, each new level of insight as added to and confirmed each of my earlier insights.

Now to deal with some of your specific errors within your own perspective applied to hex 38 and line 2 of that hexagram.

Anyway, my 'structural' take on 38 begins with its pair in 37 (yes, I know not everyone is so interested in pairs), the simple contrast of those inside and outside the home.

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In my terms you are mistaking the rhyme scheme of the pairs for the structural analysis of the hexagrams. Seen as trigrams, Li and Dui are two younger daughters still at home awaiting marriage. They are most definitively not outsiders but inside the house wanting to get out. Taken structurally, each 8th hexagram is part of the double dichotomy of the Tetrad, not outsiders to hex 37 insiders, but the living people in the household to the structure of the family household (built around the kitchen hearth with control of smoke to make the household STRUCTURE--trigrams Sun wind arising from Li fire.

And looking at line 2 begins both with thinking of it as the inner centre, the place to relate from, and also with its zhi gua, 21.

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Looking at the individual lines, the rulers of this hexagram are lines 2 and 5. This is a hexagram of relationships expressing both opposition and opportunity. Line 1 and line 4 are both Yang, thus out of relation, but line 1 is strong so it doesn't run after line 4 and all goes well eventually. Line 2 is Yang and line 5 is Yin so they have a correspondence. However, the lower line 2 is Yang and the higher position line 5 is open Yin, this is the opposition. Here the strong line 2 needs to know the inner nature of line 5 which it is too weak to express properly. Therefore a private meeting in the alley (lane or narrow street) is appropriate to resolve the matter. Is it really that different to see line 5 as a suitor and line 2 as a the savvy youngest daughter (central line of that trigram) who knows how to change circumstances to bite through the opposition of situation (hex 21 resultant)? If you prefer the Confucian version, it is the local official who meets the higher official in a non-official situation to resolve the government opposition and achieve what his local people need.

Context has great power to control meaning in all circumstances. Even taken as poetry and metaphor the context colors everything. So how does the notion of line 2 come to include expectations that are not sufficiently transcended? This is a strong, central line that is making a successful resolution of its problems and the general opposition.

Frank

Thank you for the detailed elucidation - all good reading.

A note about 38 and outsiders -
Xugua: "The dao of the home is exhausted, and so you naturally turn away."
Zagua: "Opposition: outside. People in the Home: inside."
So your picture of the hexagram fits beautifully with the Tuanzhuan and less so with one or two other Wings - which you could, of course, certainly regard as lesser Wings; you'd be in perfectly good company.

It'd be good to reach an overarching view that accommodates both the inside-outside contrast with 37 and the divergence of the sisters' aspirations. Anyone?

Actually, that's a very 38-ish goal: its challenge (as I see it) is to expand the home to accommodate differences of view. Hence the culmination in line 6: marriage, as the most literal, straightforward way in which outsiders become part of the home, and the whole 'us vv them' way of thinking is transcended.

Hm. Tuanzhuan: 'Two women in harmony [or just 'together', but it is tong, name of 13] in their dwelling, their purposes not in harmony in movement.'
Daxiang: 'The noble one uses both harmony and division.'

Seems that the Zagua is presenting the initial challenge and the Daxiang the response, and maybe the Tuanzhuan's vignette covers both?

Hi Hilary,

The Sequence commentary is generally taken as notes to assist students studying for their Imperial Civil Service Exams rather than deep insight. It is equivalent to saying, "After the family hexagram comes the sibling rivalry hexagram."

The notion of hex 37 as inside and hex 38 as outside highlights these two hexagrams as two sides of one coin. So then, what is the metal of which this coin is struck or what is the underlying unity to these polar opposites? It is the household structure. Hex 37 is all about how the family is unified around its cooking fire (and homey meals shared). Hex 38 is about the opposition and screening or testing as the folks in the household interact with each other trying to find their own individual place in the sun to grow into their own future.

Frank

fkegan said:

Hi Hilary,

The Sequence commentary is generally taken as notes to assist students studying for their Imperial Civil Service Exams rather than deep insight. It is equivalent to saying, "After the family hexagram comes the sibling rivalry hexagram."

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As I was saying - if you do take the Sequence as a lesser Wing, you're in good company.

fkegan said:

The notion of hex 37 as inside and hex 38 as outside highlights these two hexagrams as two sides of one coin. So then, what is the metal of which this coin is struck or what is the underlying unity to these polar opposites? It is the household structure.

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I'm in complete agreement with you thus far - though I wouldn't describe pairs as polar opposites, more as opposite perspectives on the same landscape.

hilary said:

I'm in complete agreement with you thus far - though I wouldn't describe pairs as polar opposites, more as opposite perspectives on the same landscape.

Click to expand...

Hi Hilary,

I don't refer to the traditional pairs at all. I think of them merely as the rhyme scheme of the Yi and thus outside of any analysis of meaning.

Hex 37 and 38 I consider part of the Tetrad of the essence of monogamous love as the foundation of Chinese society (hex 31). 37/38 are thus the polar opposites or x-axis or time dimension of monogamous love expressed through the whole family dynamics.

In hex 37 the family begins with the loving couple establishing their own household with their own cooking fire. Hex 38 refers to the eventual development of the family through the birth of children who grow up to annoy each other and oppose each other as they wait to grow up more and develop their own households with their own true loves or at least suitable husbands who they learn to love and work with enough to produce grandchildren.

Frank