“Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

― Gustave Flaubert

CHI CHI

AFTER COMPLETION

_____________   X   _____________

_______________________________

______________     ______________

_______________________________ 

_____________   X   _____________                                                 

_____________  Ɵ  ______________

The transition from confusion to order is completed and everything 

is in its proper place even in particulars.  

After completion means making firm.

THE JUDGMENT 

AFTER COMPLETION.  Success in small matters

Perseverance furthers.

At the beginning good fortune, 

At the end disorder. 

The transition from the old to the new time is already accomplished.  In principle, everything stands systematized, and it is only in regard to detail that success is still to be achieved.  In respect to this, however, we must be careful to maintain the right attitude.  Everything proceeds as if of its own accord, and this can all too easily tempt us to relax and let things take their course without troubling over details.  Such indifference is the root of all evil.  Symptoms of decay are bound to be the result.  Here we have the rule indicating the usual course of history.  But this rule is not an inescapable law.  He who understands it is in the position to avoid its effects by dint of unremitting perseverance and caution.

THE IMAGE:

Water over fire: The image of the condition

In After Completion.

Thus the superior man

Takes thought of misfortune

And arms himself against it in advance.

When water in a kettle hangs over fire, the two elements stand in relation and thus generate energy of the production of steam.  But the resulting tension demands caution.  If the water boils over, the fire is extinguished and its energy is lost.  If the heat is too great, the water evaporates into the air.  These elements here brought into relation and thus generating energy are by nature hostile to each other.  Only the most extreme caution can prevent damage.  In life too there are junctures when all forces are in balance and work in harmony, so that everything seems to be in the best of order.  In such times only the sage recognizes the moments that bode danger and knows how to banish it by means of timely precautions.

THE LINES

Nine at the beginning means:

He breaks his wheels.

He gets his tail in the water.

No blame.

In times following a great transition, everything is pressing forward, striving in the direction of development and progress.  But this pressing forward at the beginning is not good; it overshoots the mark to loss and collapse.  Therefore a man of strong character does not allow himself to be infected by the general intoxication but checks his course in time.  He may indeed not remain altogether untouched by the disastrous consequences of the general pressure, but he is hit only from behind like a fox that, having crossed the water, at the last minute gets his tail wet.  He will not suffer any real harm, because his behavior has been correct.

 O — Six in the second place means:

When a woman drove out in her carriage, she had a curtain that hid her from the glances of the curious.  It was regarded as a breach of propriety to drive on if the curtain was lost.  Applied to public life, this means that a man who wants to achieve something is not receiving that confidence of the authorities which he needs, so to speak, for his protection.  Especially in times “after completion” it may happen that those who have come to power grow arrogant and conceited and no longer trouble themselves about fostering new talent.

This as a rule results in office seeking.  If a man’s superiors withhold their trust from him, he will seek ways and means of getting it and of drawing attention to himself.  We are warned against such an unworthy procedure: “Do not seek it.”  Do not throw yourself away on the world, but wait tranquilly and develop your personal worth by your own efforts.  Times change.  When the six stages of the hexagram have passed, the new era dawns.  That which is  a man’s  own cannot be permanently lost.  It comes to him of his own accord.  He need only be able to wait.

(O — The governing rulers of the hexagram are always of good character and become rulers by virtue of the position and of the meaning of the time.  Usually, they are in the fifth place.)

Six at the top means:

He gets his head in the water.  Danger.

Here in conclusion another warning is added.  After crossing a stream, a man’s head can get into the water only if he is so imprudent as to turn back.  As long as he goes forward and does not look back, he escapes this danger.  But there is a fascination in standing still and looking back on a peril overcome.  However, such vail self-admiration brings misfortune.  It leads only to danger, and unless one finally resolves to go forward without pausing one falls a victim to this danger.

 (See below for the specific line’s significance and how to interpret it.) 

SIGNIFICANCE OF SPECIFIC LINES DETERMINES 

ITS STATUS AND FUNCTION IN A HEXAGRAM

LINE 1

Lines one and two are of the earth’s domain.

Line 1 represents an ordinary intellectual or a commoner.

In present times, it is perceived as the people.

At the position difficult to understand: as it just arrives at a hexagram, what will happen later is unknown at this point.

LINE 2

Lines one and two are of the earth’s domain.

Line 2 represents the courtier of the duke, or a domestic official, or a low ranking official

In present times, it is interpreted as the elite of civilians.

At the position for starting action: it possesses the principle of moderation.  It is ready for the assigned mission, but what it can do is still limited.  In present hexagram, line 2 is the oracle’s governing ruler.

LINE 6

Lines five and six are of the heavenly domain.  

At the top position: the shrine, line six is the symbol of a clan or dynasty.  Or is some cases, position six refers to a very honored position, but without title, power, responsibility or obligation.  

In present times, it may be interpreted as the country, or a retired official.  

Its characteristic is easy to understand.  It is at the end of a hexagram, what has happened at each phase is known to it. 

Mode of conduct: At the top and end, the mission of the hexagram is going to be completed, and its norm is about to change.

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