Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 249

222
THE APPENDIXES.
SECT. I.
Commencing at our western border' indicates that the (beneficial) influence has not yet been widely displayed
X. 1. In Li we have (the symbol of) weakness treading on (that of) strength.
2. (The lower trigram) indicates pleasure and satisfaction, and responds to (the upper) indicating strength. Hence it is said), 'He treads on the tail of a tiger, which does not bite him; there will be progress and success.'
3. (The fifth line is) strong, in the centre, and in
IX. "The weak line' is said to occupy its proper position,' because it is in the fourth, an even place. The responding' on the part of all the other lines above and below is their submitting to be restrained by it; and this arises simply from the meaning which king Wăn chose to attach to the hexagram.
But the restraint can only be small. The attributes of the two parts of the figure do not indicate anything else. The undivided line represents vigour and activity, and such a line is in the middle of each trigram. There cannot but be progress and success.
It is not easy to explain the symbolism of the last paragraph in harmony with the appended explanations. What Khăng-jze, Wang Fång, and other scholars say is to this effect :-Dense clouds ought to give rain. That they exist without doing so, shows the restraining influence of the hexagram to be still at work. But the other and active influence is, according to the general idea of the figure, continuing in operation ;-there will be rain ere long. And this was taking place in the western regions subject to the House of Kâu, which still was only a fief of Shang. It was not for the inferior House to rule the superior. Kâu was for a time restrained by Shang. Let their positions be reversed by Kâu superseding Shang, and the rain of beneficent government would descend on all the kingdom. This seems to be the meaning of the paragraph. This is the answer to the riddle of it. Confucius, in his treatise on the Thwan, hints at it, but no Chinese critic has the boldness to declare it fully.
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