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84
THE VÎ KING.
TEXT.
course of the superior man. We see in it the great gone and the little come.
1. The first line, divided, suggests the idea of grass pulled up, and bringing with it other stalks with whose roots it is connected. With firm correctness (on the part of its subject), there will be good fortune and progress.
2. The second line, divided, shows its subject patient and obedient. To the small man (comporting himself so) there will be good fortune. If the great man (comport himself) as the distress and obstruction require, he will have success.
3. The third line, divided, shows its subject ashamed of the purpose folded in his breast).
4. The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject acting in accordance with the ordination (of Heaven), and committing no error. His companions will come and share in his happiness.
5. In the fifth line, undivided, we see him who
quent time as king Wăn, and that she was the famous Thai-sze ;contrary to all the evidence I have been able to find on the subject. According to Khăng-zze, Ti-yi was the first to enact a law that daughters of the royal house, in marrying princes of the states, should be in subjection to them, as if they were not superior to them in rank. Here line 5, while occupying the place of dignity and authority in the hexagram, is yet a weak line in the place of a strong one; and its subject, accordingly, humbly condescends to his strong and proper correlate in line 2.
The course denoted by Thâi has been run; and will be followed by one of a different and unhappy character. The earth dug from the moat had been built up to form a protecting wall; but it is now again fallen into the ditch. War will only aggravate the evil; and however the ruler may address good proclamations to himself and the people of his capital, the coming evil cannot be altogether averted.
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