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Pushing Upward46
Steady growth and progress through perseverance and effort. Step-by-step advancement leads to success.
↓ Line 1
Starting with a firm foundation and trust leads to success.
↓ Line 3
Advancing into a situation that seems daunting but is actually unopposed.
↓ Line 4
Receiving recognition and support from those in power leads to success.
↓ The Marrying Maiden54
Proceed cautiously, recognizing limitations and external influences. Adapt to circumstances with humility and patience, but remain aware of your own path and intentions.
Original Readings
46 Pushing Upward
Other titles: The Symbol of Rising and Advancing, Ascending, Ascension, Rising, Promotion, Advancement, Sprouting from the Earth, Organic Growth
Judgment
Legge:Pushing Upward means successful progress. Have no anxiety about meeting with the great man. An advance to the south is fortunate.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Pushing Upward has supreme success. One must see the great man. Fear not. Departure toward the south brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Ascending. Supreme success! It is essential to see a great man, so as to banish anxiety. Progressing towards the south brings good fortune.
Liu: Ascending. Great Success. One should see a great man. Without fear. An expedition to the south leads to good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Ascending, Spring Growing. Availing-of visualizing Great People. No cares. The South, chastising significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of rising to a higher level. It emphasizes that setting a higher goal and working toward it step by step is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: ascend!]
Shaughnessy:Ascending: Prime receipt; beneficial to see the great man. Do not pity. For the southern campaign, auspicious.
Cleary(1): Rising is greatly developmental; it calls for seeing a great person, so there will be no grief. An expedition south brings good fortune.
Cleary (2):Rising is very successful, etc.
Wu:Ascension indicates great pervasion. It will be useful to see the great man. No anxiety. It will be auspicious to go south.
The Image
Legge: Wood growing in the earth -- the image of Pushing Upward. The superior man accumulates small increments of virtue until it becomes high and great.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Within the earth, wood grows: the image of Pushing Upward. Thus the superior man of devoted character heaps up small things in order to achieve something high and great.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes tress growing upwards from the earth. The Superior Man most willingly accords with virtuous ways; starting from small things, he accumulates a great heap of merit.
Liu: The wood grows in the earth, symbolizing Ascending. The superior man devotes his virtue to building things up from the small to the high and great.
Ritsema/Karcher: Earth center giving-birth-to wood. Ascending. A chun tzu uses yielding to actualize-tao. A chun tzu uses amassing the small to use the high great.
[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 become what it is meant to be.]
Cleary (1): Trees grow on the earth, rising. Thus do superior people follow virtue, accumulating the small to lofty greatness.
Wu: Trees grow from earth; this is Ascension. Thus the Jun zi diligently cultivates his virtues little by little to become tall and large like trees growing.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The magnetic line ascends as opportunity permits. We have Flexibility, Obedience and a dynamic line below with his magnetic correlate above: this means successful progress. See the great man -- his will is accomplished in the south.
Legge: The character for this hexagram means advancing in an upward direction, or ascending. The figure symbolizes the promotion of an able officer to the highest pinnacle of distinction. The action of the dynamic second line is tempered by being in the magnetic central position of the lower trigram. As the representative of Pushing Upward he is forceful, yet modest and the magnetic fifth line ruler welcomes his advance. The officer therefore has the qualities that fit him to ascend as well as a favorable opportunity to do so.
After he has met with the "great man" in line five, advance to the south will be fortunate. Chu Hsi says that this is equivalent to "advancing forwards.” Since the south is the region of brightness and warmth, the progress will be easy and agreeable.
The lower trigram symbolizes Wood, and its weak first line is the root of a tree buried in the earth of the upper trigram. The gradual growth of this root pushes the trunk upward as the circumstances of time permit.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Ascend in accordance with the will of the Self. Turn toward clarity.
The Superior Man grows a little every day.
The image of the 46th hexagram is of a plant growing in the earth, gradually pushing upward toward the sun. That "an advance to the south is fortunate" means that as all plants turn southward toward the sun, their source of nourishment, so should we turn toward the light and clarity of the "great man" or Self within us.
The upward advancement of the Work is an organic process. There is no such thing as "instant enlightenment." The many stories and parables of instant Satori which are common in the Zen Buddhist tradition are actually just dramatic accounts of the final few moments' resolution that come after a lifetime of slow and patient devotion. The Work progresses at the pace of a tree -- what started out as an acorn eventually becomes a forest giant, but it doesn't happen overnight.
Remember ever that Mind in its entirety is ever the Builder. For it is step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, that the attaining is accomplished in the mental, the spiritual, the material applications of an entity in this material world. Edgar Cayce – Book of Changes
This slow growth is an accumulation of countless "gathering togethers" as depicted in the preceding hexagram, of whichPushing Upward is the upside-down image. It is estimated that an adult human being grows from a single cell to about one-hundred billion cells through a process of fifty-billion mitotic divisions. It is interesting to observe that "one-hundred-billion" is the scientific estimate of the number of stars in any given galaxy. If we apply the Hermetic Axiom: "As above, so below" to this relationship of macrocosm to microcosm we get the image of our solar system as a single atom in the "body" of a galactic entity.
That should put the Work into perspective!
Understand that thou art a second little world and that the sun and the moon are within thee, and also the stars. Origen --Homiliae in Leviticum
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows its subject advancing upwards with the welcome of those above her. There will be great good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Pushing upward that meets with confidence brings great good fortune.
Blofeld: Certainty of promotion -- great good fortune!
Liu: Confident ascending. Great good fortune. [Indications are that you will be able to achieve the goal of your undertaking.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Sincere Ascending, the great significant.
Wu: The ascension is promising and with great fortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The subjects of the upper trigram are of the same mind with her. Wilhelm/Baynes: Those above agree in purpose. Blofeld: This is because the will of our superiors accords with our own. Ritsema/Karcher: Uniting purposes above indeed. Cleary (2): There is accord with a higher aim. Wu: The ascension agrees with the wishes of the above.
Legge: Line one is magnetic where it should be dynamic. She is humble and docile, and those above welcome her advance. As the first line of the trigram of Docility, she may be supposed to concentrate this attribute within herself.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man is advancing upward toward those who welcome him.
Wing: Although your position within the situation of your inquiry is low in stature, you have a natural accord with your superiors. Advancement and promotion are possible through industrious work on your part. This will give those above you confidence in your abilities. Good fortune.
Editor: Psychologically interpreted, the image suggests that forces within the superconscious realms of the psyche are supporting the ego's action.
The objective psyche, on the one hand, functions independently and regardless of the ego's intentions; in fact the ego is gradually formed by the objective psyche as its focal point ... On the other hand, the objective psyche appears to insist on a continuous dynamic relationship between itself and its focal point in the ego. The conscious ego must make the effort to relate to the unconscious, its maternal source-ground, in order to maintain adequate, healthy functioning. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
A. Advance in accordance with the goals of the Work.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows its subject ascending upwards as into an empty city.
Wilhelm/Baynes: One pushes upward into an empty city.
Blofeld: He was promoted to office in a larger city.
Liu: Ascending to a deserted city.
Ritsema/Karcher: Ascending: an empty capital.
Shaughnessy: Ascending the empty city.
Cleary (1): Rising in an empty domain.
Wu: He ascends to the vacant city.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He advances upwards as into an empty city -- he has no doubts or hesitation. Wilhelm/Baynes: There is no reason to hesitate. Blofeld: We cause no doubts to arise in the minds of others. Ritsema/Karcher: Without a place do doubt indeed. Cleary (2): There is no hesitation. Wu: He has no doubt.
Legge: Line three describes the bold and fearless advance of its subject. According to the K'ang-hsi editors, there is a shade of condemnation here. He is too bold, "he has no doubt or hesitation," but is presuming rather on his strength.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: No impediments retard the man's bold advance.
Wing: You may now advance with complete ease -- perhaps too much ease. This sudden lack of constraint may cause you misgivings. A little caution is a good thing now if you do not allow it to halt your progress completely.
Editor: Whenever one receives an oracle without the value judgment of "good fortune" or "there will be evil," it is wise to be especially heedful. This line describes easy progress -- which may or may not be a good thing, depending on the situation. Sometimes it can refer to making an assumption -- without, however, a clue as to whether the assumption is accurate! The line can also alert one to something new or unknown: the fact that no value judgment is appended suggests that a test may be involved.
Many times when I was concentrating on my work and thinking about nothing else, I suddenly recognized a truth which had no relationship whatever with my work...At such moments I felt as if my head had just poked up through the ceiling of one room and emerged above the floor in an upper room. It was a wonderful feeling to look around with my inward eye in this newly discovered upper room, inspecting all the hidden treasure lying there. Elisabeth Haich -- Initiation
A. A sudden upward rush.
B. An image of rapid and easy progress -- don't let it carry you away. Maintain discipline.
C. You are moving too fast.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject employed by the king to present his offerings on mount Ch'i. There will be good fortune; there will be no mistake.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The king offers him Mount Chi. Good fortune. No blame.
Blofeld: The King sacrificed on Mount Chi -- good fortune and no error! [This suggests that faith in spiritual matters or ancient traditions will serve us well.]
Liu: The king makes an offering on Mount Ch'i. Good fortune. No regret.
Ritsema/Karcher: Kinghood availing-of Growing tending-towards the twin-peaked mountain. Significant. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: The king herewith makes offering on Mount Qi; auspicious; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): The king makes offerings on the mountain. This is auspicious and blameless.
Wu: If the king would make offerings to mount Qi, it would have been auspicious and free from blame.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Such a service of spiritual beings is according to their mind. Wilhelm/Baynes: This is the way of the devoted. Blofeld: This indicates our willing compliance with duty, tradition, circumstances, etc. Ritsema/Karcher: Yielding affairs indeed. Cleary (2): Performs services accordingly. Wu: It would have been a matter of course.
Legge: This is the place of a great minister, in immediate contact with the ruler, who confides in him and raises him to the highest distinction as a feudal prince. The capital of Chou was at the foot of mount Ch'i. The king is the last Shang sovereign; the feudal prince is Wen. The K'ang-hsi editors say about the commentary: "Such an employment of men of worth to do service to spiritual beings is serving them according to their mind."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man's progress is aided and abetted by gods and men. The ruler confides in him, facilitates his efforts, and raises him in distinction.
Wing: Your progress is amplified. It is now possible for your ambitions to be fulfilled. Continue in your principles and hold to sound traditions.
Editor: This line doesn't lend itself to the usual gender symbolism. Symbolically, mountains represent a high level of awareness within the psyche. To be employed by the king to present offerings on a holy mountain suggests actions which are extremely valuable to the Work, even if you may not understand what is taking place. (Compare with line 17:6.) Wu’s conditional phrasing here is in accord with a somewhat specialist historical political interpretation which may not apply in most modern contexts.
Mountains are symbols of the abode of the gods. Consider Sinai, Olympus, Meru, Fujiyama. Again, they suggest climbing, aspiration, the possibility of attainment. We all have peaks to climb, and the incentive to action, the disposing element in our consciousness which leads to volition, has always in the background this idea of climbing above our present level. Thus the mountain represents what alchemists call the Great Work. P.F. Case -- The Tarot
A. A major insight.
B. Ego and Self are in accord. Progress is in harmony with the goals of the Work.
54 The Marrying Maiden
Other titles: The Marrying Maiden, The Symbol of the Marriage of the Younger Sister, Marriageable Maiden, The Marrying Girl, Subordinate, The Second Wife, Converting Maidenhood, Returning maiden, Making a young girl marry, Marrying a young girl, Marrying a Maiden, Unilateral Action, Impropriety, Improper Advances, "Deals with life and death, sex and birth. It contains a warning about a person or situation. It deals essentially with discrimination. The first step on the Path without which we are useless." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Propriety indicates that action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Marrying Maiden. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.
Blofeld:The Marriageable Maiden. Advance brings misfortune. No goal (or destination) is now favorable.
Liu: The Marrying Girl. Undertaking leads to misfortune. Nothing benefits.
Ritsema/Karcher: Converting Maidenhood, chastising: pitfall. Without direction: Harvesting. [Without direction: Harvesting: ... In order to take advantage of the situation, do not impose a direction on events.] [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Returning maiden: To be upright is inauspicious; there is no place beneficial.
Cleary (1): Making a young girl marry: To go on will lead to misfortune; no profit is gained.
Cleary (2):Marrying a young girl. To go on an expedition leads to misfortune, with nothing gained.
Wu: Marrying a Maiden indicates that it will be foreboding to make moves. There is nothing to be gained.
The Image
Legge: The waters of a Marsh with Thunder over it form the hexagram of Propriety. The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder over the lake: the image of The Marrying Maiden. Thus the superior man understands the transitory in the light of the eternity of the end.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder over a pool. The Superior Man knows that, to achieve an enduring end, he must be aware of his mistakes at the beginning.
Liu: Thunder over the lake symbolizes the Marrying Girl. The superior man knows the cause of error, and persists in his virtue to the end.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh possessing thunder. Converting Maidenhood. A chun tzu uses perpetually completing to know the cracked.
Cleary (1): There is thunder above a lake, making a young girl marry. Thus superior people persist to the end and know what is wrong.
Cleary (2): Thunder over a lake – Marrying a young girl. Developed people consider lasting results and know what is wrong. [The way developed people handle things is that before they take the time to ask how to start something, they first consider lasting results. If they think of lasting results, they know what is wrong with acting prematurely, like marrying an immature girl. If you understand the meaning of this, you can apply it to government and to contemplating mind as well.]
Wu: There is thunder above the marsh; this is Marrying a Maiden. Thus, the jun zi in the pursuit of lasting excellence realizes the flaws and corrects them.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In the marriage of a young bride the proper relationship between heaven and earth is seen. Nothing could grow or flourish if heaven and earth did not unite. The marriage of a young bride is therefore both the commencement and goal of humanity. But here the desire of pleasure employs movement to attain union. This action will be evil because the lines are in inappropriate places, and the magnetic three and five are mounted on dynamic lines.
Legge: The Chinese phrase for this hexagram might be equivalent to the English "giving in marriage,” but there are some special meanings in this case which must be understood. The Judgment gives a bad auspice because the trigram of the Youngest Daughter is beneath the trigram of the Eldest Son. Since the action of the hexagram begins with the lowest trigram, we have two violations of propriety. First, the marriage is initiated by the woman and her friends. She goes unilaterally to her future home instead of the bridegroom coming to fetch her. Second, the parties are unequally matched -- there is too great a disparity in their ages. In addition, all the lines in the hexagram except the top and the bottom are in places inappropriate for them. Some commentators insist that the symbol of the contracting of a marriage in this hexagram sets forth some principles which should obtain in the relation between a ruler and his ministers.
The growth of things in nature from the interaction of heaven and earth is analogous to the increase of mankind through the interaction between male and female in marriage. The K'ang-hsi editors reconcile this good auspice with the unfavorable Judgment by saying: "The interaction of the yin and yang cannot be dispensed with, but we ought to be careful about it in the beginning in order to prevent mischief in the end.” The error here is that the desire for the marriage originated with the lady, and that she is heedless of the disparity in their ages.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Propriety means that unilateral action is inappropriate.
The Superior Man understands that the Work is guided from within, and that choices which ignore this truth can only retard its progress. (Present actions originate future consequences: pay heed to your choices.)
The traditional name for this hexagram is The Marrying Maiden -- a title which does not convey to modern western readers the subtlety of its symbolism. Blofeld says: "This hexagram is, on the whole, a most unfortunate omen ... We must not suppose that it deals only with marriage. What is said about the maiden symbolizes in some way or other what we may expect for ourselves within the context of our enquiry." The figure is certainly difficult, but "unfortunate" only if its import is resisted or denied: any portrayal of our situation which eliminates illusion (however painful the realization), must be regarded as a positive lesson.
Although the Confucian commentary describes this hexagram in terms of self-seeking aspiration, the wretched protagonist of the figure is not invariably culpable, and neither Judgment nor Image imply this. In addition to being at the very bottom of the social pecking order, the maiden is portrayed as half-blind, crippled and a "slave." Although condemned by the commentators for importuning a marriage that would raise her status, a close reading of the lines reveals that only the sixth place suggests possible impropriety -- the others all contain advice about how one of extremely low status should cope with restricted circumstances. The hexagram therefore can deal with either of two possible conditions: those involving Proprietyand those involving Making-do as an adaptation to adversity.
In the first instance, it is useful to compare the symbolism here with that of the preceding hexagram of Gradual Progress. There we see the organic progression of the Work allegorized as the proper marriage of a young woman. In this case, Gradual Progress has been turned upside down and the symbolism reversed: this young woman improperly pursues a marriage on her own initiative. Psychologically interpreted, it can be regarded as an image of the ego pushing its own agenda or desire for union.
The ego may move in directions and toward actions that are at variance with the intentions and standards of the Self ... The mature adult needs to recognize eventually his or her relative limitedness vis-à-vis the "Self- field" and the cosmic organism of which s/he is but a cell. We are subject to the ordering and growth intents of the entelechy of the whole. E. C. Whitmont -- The Alchemy of Healing
To recognize our `relative limitedness “vis-à-vis the Self-field” is to renounce our claim to unilateral action. Though the ego ardently desires a marriage with the Self, only the Self can initiate such a union. Chou Tun I, an early Neo-Confucian, makes an observation which illuminates Legge's Image:
"The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning. The most important things in the world are tendencies. Tendencies may be strong or weak. If a tendency is extremely strong, it cannot be controlled. But it is possible to control it quickly if one realizes that it is strong. To control it requires effort. If one does not realize early enough, it will not be easy to apply effort.”
To receive this hexagram without changing lines can be an admonition to examine your motives and actions in the matter at hand. Where are you out of line? If no obvious impropriety is involved, it could also portray an essentially impotent predicament. At such times Ritsema/Karcher's synopsis bears repetition: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it.”
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare Propriety with hexagram number fifty-three, Gradual Progress, then compare them both with hexagram number thirty-one,Initiative. What are the similarities in their ideas? Now look at hexagrams number eleven, seventeen and twenty-two and observe the over-all philosophy which begins to emerge.