Conjoining (31)
5
4
3
The Judgement
Influence. Success.Perseverance furthers.
To take a maiden to wife brings good fortune.
The Image
A lake on the mountain:The image of influence.
Thus the superior man encourages people to approach him
By his readiness to receive them.
Line Poems
- 6 - The influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks, and tongue.
- 5 - The influence shows itself in the back of the neck. No remorse.
- 4 - Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears. If a man is agitated in mind, And his thoughts go hither and thither, Only those friends On whom he fixes his conscious thoughts Will follow.
- 3 - The influence shows itself in the thighs. Holds to that which follows it. To continue is humiliating.
- 2 - The influence shows itself in the calves of the legs. Misfortune. Tarrying brings good fortune.
- 1 - The influence shows itself in the big toe.
Commentary
The name of the hexagram means “universal,” “general,” and in a figurative sense “to influence,” “to stimulate.”The upper trigram is Tui, the Joyous; the lower is Kên, Keeping Still.
By its persistent, quiet influence, the lower, rigid trigram stimulates the upper, weak trigram, which responds to this stimulation cheerfully and joyously.
Kên, the lower trigram, is the youngest son; the upper, Tui, is the youngest daughter.
Thus the universal mutual attraction between the sexes is represented.
In courtship, the masculine principle must seize the initiative and place itself below the feminine principle.
Just as the first part of book I begins with the hexagrams of heaven and earth, the foundations of all that exists, the second part begins with the hexagrams of courtship and marriage, the foundations of all social relationships.
