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So, back to my notes on the I Ching, that cornerstone of Chinese culture. If you want to know China, there’s no way around the I Ching.
After the wise advice of the last hexagram, which was all about hanging in there and keeping on keeping on, we come to the inevitable stopping and backing away. Not all courses are worth following.
What’s the character mean?
The character for dun shows three footprints over a stop sign (yes, really, it’s the character for “zhi,” meaning “stop”) on one side, and on the other side, a pig divided by a piece of meat and a hand. Huang explains this as someone offering a pig up as a religious sacrifice. In other words, go no farther! Propitiate the spirits as you retreat! I’m not sure if the word “retreat” has the same religious meaning in Chinese that it does in European languages – as something spiritual that one goes on to withdraw from the world and contemplate – but that seems to be an undercurrent to this hexagram.
What’s on the top?
The outer trigram is qian, the expansive force of heaven.
What’s on the bottom?
The inner trigram is gen, the solid, stolid mountain. The sage embodies stillness under heaven.
What’s in the guts?
The nuclear trigrams are heavenly qian over penetrating, windy xun. This seems to me like a good symbol for intellectual insight – inside the stillness, the gentle wind is going deep.
What’s it from far away?
The Judgement and Image verses show success following from stepping back. Wilhelm distinguishes between “retreat” (which is the word he uses to translate “dun”) and “flight” – the latter is scattering before a superior force, while the former is maintaining a position of strength as an opponent advances. The superior person, when confronted with an advancing inferior, does not become involved… doesn’t give way to hatred or frustration. Like the sky over a high mountain, the superior simply withdraws to a quieter, higher ground.
What’s it saying up close?
The Lines verses seem to illustrate a beast walking away, starting with the tail and ending with the head. Or, in some ways, it’s more about a beast pursuing a person who is withdrawing: the second line describes a pursuer clinging on as if secured in place by rawhide (now *that’s* a strong grip), and the third line talks about giving in to that clinging beast. If you’re trying to retreat from those inferior annoyances who keep on hanging around, this hexagram says, well, you might as well give ‘em a job so they make themselves useful. The remainder of the lines are all about ways to withdraw from a situation while still maintaining friendliness and interior equilibrium – the secret lesson of those most powerful magic words, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
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Curious why this is in a blog about Chinese adoption? Read this explanation. I’m using the Wilhelm/Baynes translation from the comprehensive Wengu collection or the user-friendly Eclectic Energies site, and I’m taking the character translations from Alfred Huang’s The Complete I Ching. Feel like going deeper? Check out Hong Kong’s Taoist Culture & Information Centre’s I Ching page, and the essays & reviews on Ma Xia’s Yijing Page.
