Dui is the root of the Chinese character “speaking.” There is an open mouth in the middle of the character, talking and smiling. Dui has a variety of meanings. Originally it signified speaking with joy, but it also means exchange in the sense of giving and taking. Giving and receiving makes people joyful. Dui is the inverse of the preceding gua, Proceeding Humbly, which makes people joyful.
Sequence of the Gua: Proceeding humbly makes people feel joyous. Thus, after Proceeding Humbly, Joyful follows. Wilhelm translates Dui as The Joyous, Lake, and Blofeld translates it as Joy. I adopt the name Joyful.
The ideograph uses the image of a person singing and dancing to express the mood of joy. It consists of three parts. In the middle is an open mouth singing. The lower part is made up of two legs, which seem to be moving and dancing. The upper part depicts two arms swinging in the air, expressing joy. The structure of the gua is Lake above, Lake below. Lake’s attribute is joy. When Lake is doubled, the joyfulness is also doubled.
According to Western tradition, Dui has been translated as Lake, and people are
accustomed to it. In fact, it should be marsh or swamp. Rice is the staple of life for the Chinese people, and rice paddies are marshes. An abundance of Dui, marshes, leads to an abundance of food — a situation that makes everyone joyful.
In the I Ching, the uppermost line represents the outer reality and the lowest line
represents the inner reality. A yielding line mounting upon two solid lines makes Lake ☱. Thus, the yielding line at the top represents one’s gentle and joyful personality. The two solid lines on the bottom symbolize one’s inner principle and strength. When one is gentle and joyful and has inner strength, one is easily accepted in any situation. [Huang, the Complete I Ching]
So here is another geopolitical Yi Cast, this one following a comment made at the Moon of Alabama site a few days ago (sorry, no link). I was musing about how China’s future might unfold and speculating that she will go through various phases. I then thought to get the Yi’s take on it. To be honest, this one feels like I need more time to absorb it. In terms of phases, there is a direct interpretation not exactly spelled out as such in the Reading though it’s there in the Judgement.
The Past Influence is Great Power.
The Present Phase involves is Great Joy as China is coming back into her own as a leading world civilization living hundreds of millions out of poverty.
The Future Influence involves bringing things to Fruition, integrating multifarious yin and yang elements on both domestic and foreign fronts.
The essential nuclear dynamic is the Nation as Family, Clan, meaning she must always remain true to herself and her peoples’ needs, which President Xi has already proclaimed a core guiding principle.
The Way (Derived Hexagram #62) involves balancing inner peace with outer dynamism, power with humility, and not over-extending. It feels like China will find her place in the world again, but not as an interfering Hegemon, more as a nation taking her natural place in an ordinary fashion. Which for a Great Power to achieve would be no small thing.
IMAGE
Yi: China’s Civilizational Phases 58 – 1,2,3,5 > 62 < 37
Lake Doubled
Joyful Communication, Ease
JUDGMENT
From Great Power in the past, for millennia,
comes now a time of joyful intercourse;
beware false friends;
avoid over-extending
during the home stretch leading to fruition
emphasize simplicity, humility
and keeping it ordinary;
low-flying bird with inner calm, outer motion
circling around the foundational
Heart of the Humankind,
Family and Clan,
returning to land humbly at its nest, just so.
For a Great Power, no small achievement.
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