One compares what one has achieved with what others have said they have done. taoscopy.com
Breakthrough 43
Break through obstacles with determination and clarity. Confront negativity openly while maintaining integrity and wisdom. The truth must be revealed, yet patience is required.
↓ Line 1
Be cautious in taking the first step. Overconfidence can lead to mistakes.
↓ Line 3
Standing firm in one's beliefs may lead to isolation and criticism, but it is necessary.
↓ Line 5
Address problems with determination and maintain balance to avoid blame.
↓ Deliverance40
Release from tension and obstacles. Break free, adapt, and embrace change. Find relief in newfound clarity.
43 Breakthrough
Other titles: Break-through, The Symbol of Decision, Resolution, Determination, Parting, Removing Corruption, Eradication
Judgment
Legge: Recognizing the risks involved in criminal prosecution, justice demands a resolute proof of the culprit's guilt in the royal court. One informs one's own city that armed force is not necessary. In this way progress is assured.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Break-through. One must resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king. It must be announced truthfully. Danger. It is necessary to notify one's own city. It does not further to resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something.
Blofeld: Resolution. When a proclamation is made at the court of the King, frankness in revealing the true state of affairs is dangerous. [In vital matters, frankness may prove dangerous.] In making announcements to the people of his own city, it is not fitting for the ruler to carry arms. [It is better to repose trust in our own people.] It is favorable to have some goal (or destination).
Liu: Determination. Someone is proud in the king's court, and the king trusts him. If one exposes the truth, danger. It must be told to one's own people. Using force does not benefit. It does benefit to do something else. [You must decide how to deal with a situation before it reaches a dangerous point, or things will take their own course and overwhelm you.]
Ritsema/Karcher:Parting, displaying tending-towards kingly chambers. Conforming, crying-out, possessing adversity. Notifying originates from the capital. Not Harvesting: approaching arms. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of separation and diverging directions. It emphasizes that resolutely dividing your energies is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Resolution: Raised up at the royal court, returning crying out; there is danger. Announcing from the sky; not beneficial to regulate the belligerents; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Parting is lauded in the royal court. The call of truth involves danger. Addressing one’s own domain, it is not beneficial to go right to war, but it is beneficial to go somewhere. [The royal court is the abode of the mind-ruler, where true and false are distinguished.]
Cleary (2): Decision is brought up in the royal court. A sincere statement involves danger, etc.
Wu:Eradication indicates a conceited pronouncement in the royal court on the one hand, and a concerted call for vigilance on the other. It is essential to make the danger known to the people, but not to resort to force now. It is advantageous to have undertakings.
The Image
Legge: The image of the waters of a marsh mounting over heaven forms Resoluteness. The superior man, in accordance with this, does not hoard his wealth, but shares it with his subordinates.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The lake has risen up to heaven: the image of Break-through. Thus the superior man dispenses riches downward and refrains from resting on his virtue.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake being drawn (sucked) towards the sky. The Superior Man distributes his emoluments to those below; dwelling in virtue, he renounces them.
Liu: The lake ascends to heaven, symbolizing Determination. The superior man distributes wealth below him, without displaying his favors.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to heaven. Parting. A chun tzu uses spreading-out benefits to extend to the below. A chun tzu uses residing-in actualizing tao, by- consequence keeping-aloof. [Actualize-tao: Ability to follow the course traced by the ongoing process of the cosmos... Linked with acquire, TE: acquiring that which makes a being what it is meant to be.]
Cleary (1): Moisture ascends to heaven, which parts with it. Thus do superior people distribute blessings to reach those below, while avoiding presumption of virtue. [After people get mixed up in temporal conditioning, the discriminatory consciousness takes charge of affairs; wine and sex distract them from reality, the lure of wealth deranges their nature, emotions and desires well forth at once, thoughts and ruminations arise in a tangle, and the mind-ruler is lost in confusion. Because habituation becomes second nature over a long period of time, it cannot be abruptly removed. It is necessary to work on the matter in a serene and equanimous way, according to the time: Eventually discrimination will cease, and the original spirit will return; the human mind will sublimate and the mind of Tao will be complete – again you will see the original self.]
Cleary (2): … If they presumed on their virtue, they would be resented.
Wu: The marsh rises to heaven; this is Eradication. Thus the jun zi distributes his emolument to those below and is loath to monopolize virtues.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Resoluteness is the symbol of displacing or removing. We see the dynamic lines displacing the magnetic line. The figure displays the attributes of Strength and Cheerfulness. There is displacement, but harmony continues. The exhibition of the criminal's guilt in the royal court is shown by the magnetic line mounted on five dynamic lines. The awareness of danger and appeal for justice makes the matter clear. If he has recourse to arms, what he prefers will soon be exhausted. When the advance of the dynamic lines is complete, there will be an end to displacement.
Legge:Resoluteness represents the third month when the last vestige of winter, represented by the sixth line, is about to disappear before the advance of summer. The single yin line at the top symbolizes an inferior man, a feudal prince or high minister who is corrupting the government. The five yang lines below are the representatives of good order. The lesson of the hexagram is how to remove corruption from the kingdom. He who would do this must do so by the force of his character more than the force of arms. Never forgetting the dangerous nature of his undertaking, he must openly denounce the criminal in the court and awaken general sympathy to his cause. Among his own adherents ("In his own city") he must prevent any tendency to resort to armed conflict. As a worthy statesman he is not motivated by private feelings.
Hu Ping-wen says: "If but a single inferior man is left, he is sufficient to make the superior man anxious; if but a single inordinate desire be left in the mind, that is sufficient to disturb the harmony of the heavenly principles. The eradication in both cases must be complete, before the labor is ended."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:Resoluteness involves astute discernment of what is wrong and a discreet re-establishment of order without polarizing the situation. Be clear in your own strategy, but let common sense be your guide about how much you need to disclose to others. Avoid aggression at all costs.
The Superior Man maintains equilibrium by distributing his energy equitably -- he smoothes things out.
The forty-third hexagram is an image of the eradication of an inferior force from the situation at hand: five yang lines resolutely advance on the single yin line, which is about to be pushed out of the hexagram at the top. This is a negative image of the twenty-third hexagram, Disintegration, which shows the opposite situation of five lower yin lines undermining one upper yang line. It is instructive to compare the nearly identical message for the superior man in the Images of each of these figures. The idea is one of fostering an equitable distribution of energy within the situation -- Disintegration and the Resoluteness required to rectify it are extreme situations requiring extreme measures. Such extremes must always be neutralized through a justly distributed balance of forces.
It's not the concern of law that any one class in the city fare exceptionally well, but it contrives to bring this about for the whole city, harmonizing the citizens by persuasion and compulsion, making them share with one another the benefit that each class is able to bring to the commonwealth. And it produces such men in the city not in order to let them turn whichever way each wants, but in order that it may use them in binding the city together. Plato --The Republic
Compare the nuances of meaning in each translation of the Judgment. Wilhelm's is most radical, advising a direct (albeit dangerous), expose of what is wrong. Most of the others imply room for discretion about what needs to be revealed. Diplomacy is the art of knowing when full- disclosure only prevents resolution of the problem. Ritsema/Karcher allude to the proper mind-set required to manage such situations: "[A chun tzu uses] residing-in actualizing tao, by-consequence keeping-aloof." To "reside in actualizing tao," is to live directly from one's essence, and when this is associated with "keeping-aloof" we get an image of quietly rectifying a situation without revealing our purpose or strategy.
Psychologically interpreted,Resoluteness, like Disintegration, depicts an extreme situation which must first be rectified, then prevented from re-occurring through the maintenance of a just balance of power which is administered by the ego under the will of the Self.
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows its subject in the pride of strength, advancing with his toes. He goes forward, but will not succeed. There will be ground for blame.
Wilhelm/Baynes : Mighty in the forward-striding toes. When one goes and is not equal to the task, one makes a mistake.
Blofeld: To set out with a great show of strength, advance, but win no success is shameful. [That is, we should not voluntarily and somewhat boastfully take on a difficult task, unless we are sure of success.]
Liu: Power in toes moving forward. If one goes and lacks ability, he makes a mistake.
Ritsema/Karcher: Invigorating tending-towards the preceding foot. Going not mastering, activating faulty.
Shaughnessy: Mature in the front foot; to go will not be victorious, but will be trouble.
Cleary (1): Vigor in the advancing feet, going but not prevailing, this is faulty.
Wu: He has strong toes. If he acts in a rash way and is not able to get his job done, he will be blamed.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Without being able to succeed he goes forward -- this is an error. Wilhelm/Baynes: When one goes without being equal to the task, it is a mistake. Blofeld: This illustrates the shame involved in taking on something and then failing. Ritsema/Karcher: Not mastering and also going. Fault indeed. Cleary (2): To go without prevailing is faulty. Wu: Acting in a rash way with no ability to get his job done is a mistake.
Legge: Line one, the first line in the lower trigram of Strength, is in the lowest place in the hexagram. The stage of the enterprise is too early and the preparation too small to make victory certain. He had better not take the field.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man presses forward prematurely without sufficient preparation and strength. Initial setbacks due to blind miscalculations are grounds for blame.
Wing: Despite strong resolve, beginnings are the most difficult and dangerous of times. Be certain that you are equal to the task you have in mind. A mistake now could become an insurmountable setback. Better rethink this one.
Editor: Compare this line with the first line in hexagram number thirty-four, Great Power,in which an almost identical idea is presented.
"Work-addiction," the "manager disease," the compulsive need of always having to do something in order to appear busy, also indicates the inability of modern man to find a meaning in life. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
A. Don't force the issue. You aren't equal to the consequences of your impulses.
B. "Don't bite off more than you can chew."
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows its subject about to advance with strong and determined looks. There will be evil. But the superior man, bent on cutting off the criminal, will walk alone and encounter the rain, till he be hated by his proper associates as if he were contaminated by the others. In the end there will be no blame against him.
Wilhelm/Baynes: To be powerful in the cheekbones brings misfortune. The superior man is firmly resolved. He walks alone and is caught in the rain. He is bespattered, and people murmur against him. No blame.
Blofeld: Strength in the cheekbones -- misfortune! [Making a parade of our strength.] The Superior Man is firmly determined; but if, while walking alone in the rain, he is irked by the mud, he is not to be blamed for that. [Nothing must deflect us, but a little grumbling at unpleasantness is in order.]
Liu: To display too much strength in the face -- misfortune. The superior man is determined. He walks alone through the rain. He gets wet. He is unhappy. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Invigorating tending-towards the cheek- bones: Possessing a pitfall. A chun tzu: Parting, Parting. Solitary going, meeting rain. Like soaking, possessing indignation. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Mature in the cheekbones; there is inauspiciousness. The gentleman so broken-up moves alone, meeting rain that is like moistening; there are hot springs; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Vigor in the face has bad luck. A superior person leaves what is to be left; going alone, encountering rain and so getting wet, there is irritation, but no fault.
Cleary (2): Vigor in the face involves misfortune. Developed people part decisively and travel alone. Encountering rain, if they get wet there is irritation but no fault.
Wu: He has strong cheekbones. Foreboding. The jun zi is determined to eradicate the little man. Walking alone, he encounters rain and gets wet. He is angry, but not to be blamed.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The superior man looks bent on cutting off the culprit – there will in the end be no error. Wilhelm/Baynes: Ultimately this is not a mistake. Blofeld: The resolutely determined Superior Man is blameless to the end. Ritsema/Karcher: Completing without fault indeed. Cleary (2): Developed people part decisively and are faultless in the end. Wu: (He) will not be blamed in the end.
Legge: Line three is dynamic, and displays his purpose too eagerly. Being beyond the central position gives an indication of evil. Lines three and six are also proper correlates, and as elsewhere in theI Ching, the meeting of yin and yang lines is associated with falling rain. Line three, therefore, communicates with line six in a way that annoys his associates. Nevertheless, he commits no error, and in the end incurs no blame.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man displays his purposes too openly. The superior man does not show outward hostility when bent on cutting off the criminal, since the time is not ripe and the inferior man will endanger the situation through countermeasures. He resolves the difficulty by maintaining outward politeness, avoiding recriminations, and awaiting the propitious opportunity. Although he is misunderstood and maligned by the multitude, there will be no blame in the end.
Wing: Your struggle against an adversary is one you must approach alone. Although your entire milieu may be against this foe, the battle is still yours. In overcoming this difficulty, you may temporarily align yourself with it. This looks bad and you are misunderstood but you remain without error in the end.
Editor: Rain symbolizes the union of heaven and earth -- male with female, thought with feeling. It means encountering the truth -- making a "fertile connection." Psychologically, this line suggests the travail and turmoil involved in coming to grips with an unpleasant truth or duty. The superior man's "associates" are those complexes in the psyche which prefer not to cope with the situation. The misfortune of being "strong in the cheekbones" suggests that determined action accomplishes more than expressions of righteous indignation.
And he who takes his hand from the plough of his immediate Earthly duty, (which is a Cosmic and Spiritual duty also, however much familiarity may tend to breed contempt), will never by that act attain to his heavenly home in the stars. The furrow awaits his tilling – and until it be tilled, and the seed sown, and the harvest garnered and gathered in -- his place remains in Earth, with the added burden of rooting out the weeds and breaking up the clodded sods brought about by his own neglect and spiritual defection. Gareth Knight -- Qabalistic Symbolism
A. Bite the bullet and do what needs to be done without making a big deal out of it.
B. You are stuck with an unpopular but necessary duty.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows the small men like a bed of purslaine, which ought to be uprooted with the utmost determination. The subject of the line having such determination, his action, in harmony with his central position, will lead to no error or blame.
Wilhelm/Baynes: In dealing with weeds, firm resolution is necessary. Walking in the middle remains free of blame.
Blofeld: With the tenacity of spinach clinging to the earth, he blamelessly steers a middle course. [That is, weak but determined.]
Liu: Clinging weeds. Determination is necessary. Taking the middle path. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Reeds, highlands: Parting, Parting. Center moving, without fault.
Shaughnessy: The amaranth burns so broken-up, in the middle of the ranks; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Wild burdock root; cut through resolutely. Balanced action is impeccable.
Cleary (2): A hill of amaranth; parting with what is to be parted with, balanced action is faultless. [Here it is appropriate to part with what the other yangs part with [i.e., the top yin line], but still preserve and nurture it; this is the path of balanced action, whereby it is possible to be faultless. However, when parting, after all one does not avoid distinguishing between developed and undeveloped people, though one still does not forget what is universally the same in everyone – therefore“balance is not yet obvious.”]
Wu: Like the lead sheep of a flock, he is determined to lead the charge against the little man. His approach from the center results in no error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His standing in the due mean is not yet clearly displayed. Wilhelm/Baynes: The middle is not yet in the light. Blofeld: Yes, blamelessly but not brilliantly! [In this situation, we can do well enough, but not very well.]Ritsema/Karcher: Center not-yet shining indeed. Cleary (2): Balanced action is faultless, but balance is not yet obvious. Wu: Though central, his action is not enlightening.
Legge: Purslaine grows in shady places, and hence we find it here in close contiguity to the topmost line, which is yin. Line five's proximity to line six is supposed to have a bad effect on him, so that while he does what his central position requires, it is not without an effort. Ch'eng-Tzu says: "If a man cherishes a single illicit desire in his mind, he has left the right way." Since five is the ruler's seat, evil may come to him, and strenuous efforts must be made to prevent such an evil.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Uprooting corruption from high offices requires the utmost determination.
Wing: When attempting to overthrow adversaries or obstacles in powerful positions, great Resolution and determination are necessary. The roots of this opposition run wide and deep and, unless completely eradicated, it may spring back to power. A calm thoroughness will see you through.
Editor: Wilhelm and Liu render the other translators’ wide range of specific plants as "weeds,” which is a much more evocative image of the inferior forces symbolized in this line. Psychologically, the idea is clear enough: unless one uproots (brings under control) every remnant of independent (habitual) affect within the psyche, it will eventually return to harm the Work. Sometimes the majority Confucian commentary does not seem to apply, in which case Cleary’s minority Buddhist interpretation (above) may be more apt.
Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
Suffer them now and they'll o'ergrow the garden.
Shakespeare -- Henry VI
A. Succumbing to neither despair nor overconfidence, one resolutely eliminates every trace of inferior perception and feeling associated with the matter at hand.
B. A balanced viewpoint roots out error.
40 Deliverance
Other titles: Deliverance, The Symbol of Loosening, Release, Eliminating Obstacles, Taking-apart, Untangled, Solution, Dissolution, Relief, Unloose, Release of Tension
Judgment
Legge:Liberation finds advantage in the southwest. When the operation is completed, a return to stability brings good fortune. If operations are incomplete, it is best to finish them quickly.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Deliverance. The southwest furthers. If there is no longer anything (Sic) where one has to go, return brings good fortune. If there is still something (Sic) where one has to go, hastening brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Release. The west and south are favorable. Those with nothing to gain from going forward will find good fortune by turning back; those who do have much to gain from going forward must hasten to be sure of doing well. [This is not a time to stay where we are. If we have no good reason to advance, it is best to retreat.]
Liu: Liberation. The southwest benefits. If there is nothing for one where one has to go, then returning brings good fortune. If there is something in a place where one can go, then going quickly leads to good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Taking-apart. Harvesting: Western South. Without a place to go: one's coming return significant. Possessing directed going: Daybreak significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of reflection and release from tension. It emphasizes that analyzing and understanding things in order to be delivered from compulsion is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Untangled: Beneficial to the southwest; there is nowhere to go; his coming in return is auspicious; there is someplace to go to spend the night; auspicious.
Cleary (1): For liberation, the southwest is beneficial. When going nowhere, the return brings good fortune; when going somewhere, promptness brings good fortune.
Cleary (2): For solution, the southwest is beneficial. Going nowhere, coming back is fortunate, etc.
Wu: Relief indicates advantage in the southwest. If he undertakes to do something without a cause, it will be auspicious for him to return to his former station. If he undertakes to do something with a cause, it will be auspicious for him to do it early.
The Image
Legge: Liberation shows a thunderstorm clearing the atmosphere. The superior man, in accordance with this, forgives errors and deals gently with crimes.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder and rain set in: the image of Deliverance. Thus the superior man pardons mistakes and forgives misdeeds.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder and rain bringing release. The Superior Man tends to forgive wrongs and deals leniently with crimes. [The component trigrams suggest that a certain amount of forceful action is required.]
Liu: Thunder and rain come, symbolizing Liberation. The superior man forgives errors and pardons criminals.
Ritsema/Karcher: Thunder, rain, arousing. Taking-apart. A chun tzu uses forgiving excess to pardon offenses.
Cleary (1): Thunder and rain act, dissolving. Thus do superior people forgive faults and pardon crimes.
Cleary (2): Thunder and rain – solution. Etc.
Wu: There come thunder and rain; this is Relief. Thus the jun zi pardons inadvertent transgressors and extenuates (Sic) criminal offenders.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Liberation shows the trigram of Movement above the trigram of Danger -- through movement there is an escape from peril. An early movement to the southwest wins the allegiance of the masses and returns the state to normalcy and equilibrium. When heaven and earth are freed from the grasp of winter, we have thunder and rain. When these come, the buds of the fruit-producing vegetation begin to open. Great indeed are the phenomena in the time ofLiberation.
Legge: The written Chinese character for Liberation is the symbol of unloosing -- untying a knot or unraveling a complication. This hexagram denotes a condition in which the obstruction and difficulty of the preceding figure have been removed. The lesson is how this new and better state of the kingdom should be dealt with. If no tasks remain to be completed, the sooner things resume their normal course the better. If further operations are necessary, let them be accomplished without delay. The K'ang-hsi editors say that moving to the south and west is the same as returning to normality.
Thunder and rain clear the atmosphere, and a feeling of oppression is relieved. The images of springtime in the Confucian commentary refer to the gentle policy of a conquering ruler who forgives the opposition of those who cease to offer resistance.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Do what obviously needs to be done and return to stability as soon as possible.
The Superior Man forgives, forgets, and bears no grudges. (i.e., Stability is more important than fixing blame or haggling over who is right.)
If the thirty-ninth hexagram of Impasse is turned upside down it becomes the fortieth hexagram of Liberation or Deliverance. The two figures represent opposite situations: if Impasse creates tension, then Liberation releases it. The upper trigram of Movement ascends to escape from the lower trigram of Danger, giving us an unambiguous image of freedom and relief.
Apart from all personification, the whole of space in which life finds itself has a malevolently spiritual character, and the "demons" themselves are as much spatial realms as they are persons. To overcome them is the same thing as to pass through them, and in breaking through their boundaries this passage at the same time breaks their power and achieves the liberation from the magic of their sphere. H. Jonas --The Gnostic Religion
Legge's commentary in the preceding hexagram explains that the "southwest" is the direction of "earth," the fertile lowland where life is natural and uncontrived. Confucius tells us here that an early move in this direction will win the "allegiance of the masses." Psychologically interpreted, this refers to the inner kingdom of the psyche, where “the masses” are the drives, emotions and archetypal complexes which make up our being. The symbolism suggests a conscious freeing up of inner tension.
These forces, therefore, must not be left to run wild, but should be disposed of in harmless ways or, better still, used for constructive purposes: creative activities of various kinds; the rebuilding of our personality, contributing to our Psychosynthesis. Roberto Assagioli -- Psychosynthesis