Here this stage has not yet been reached: the individual in this instance, though able to keep the ego, with its thoughts and impulses, in a state of rest, is not yet quite liberated from its dominance. In this way rest and movement are in agreement with the demands of the time, and thus there is light in life. The Chinese character for this hexagram means in its original sense an animal’s pelt, which is changed in the course of the year by molting. There one weak line must tame five strong lines, but here four strong lines are restrained by two weak lines; in addition to a minister, there is a prince, and the restraining power therefore is far stronger. This produces great power, a situation in contrast to that of the ninth hexagram, Hsiao Ch’u, THE TAMING POWER OF THE SMALL, in which the Creative is tamed by the Gentle alone.

It is only by remaining conscious of the dangers growing out of the responsibility we have assumed that we can avoid making mistakes.But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention—a partial education of this sort is as bad as none—or he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self–development. Small wonder then that both ofthe two branches of Chinese philosophy, Confucianism and Taoism,have their common roots here. Hence too a ravine is used to symbolize danger; it is a situation in which a man is in the same pass as the water in a ravine, and, like the water, he can escape if he behaves correctly. Volume 1 is in very good condition, with mild soiling to the fore edge of the text block and rubbing along the bottom edges of the boards.

But of course there is also the possibility that many may gather around him not because of a feeling of confidence but merely because of his influential position. But if he will only see to it that he is possessed of something truly spiritual, the time is bound to come, sooner or later, when the difficulties will be resolved and all will go well.These speculations are also to blame for the fact that the seedsof a free Chinese natural science, which undoubtedly existed atthe time of Mo Ti [4] and his pupils, were killed, and replacedby a sterile tradition of writing and reading books that was whollyremoved from experience.

Yet we must not overlook the fact that apart from this mechanisticnumber mysticism, a living stream of deep human wisdom was constantlyflowing through the channel of this book into everyday life, givingto China's great civilization that ripeness of wisdom, distilledthrough the ages, which we wistfully admire in the remnants ofthis last truly autochthonous culture.A man who in the extremity of danger has lost the right way and is irremediably entangled in his sins has no prospect of escape.

A spring flows only sparingly at first, and tarries for some time before it makes its way in to the open. But care must be taken not to let it come in contact with those further away, because once free it would unfold its evil aspects unchecked. While all others are engaged in a resolute fight against all that is inferior, he alone has a certain relationship with an inferior man. To plunge blindly ahead is wrong, because it is precisely at the beginning that an unexpected setback can have the most disastrous results.Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which, evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs, is independent of all political forms.