Hexagram 09 and 10, walking one's daily life.
09 XIAO CHU, looking after everything which needs care
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Ban Xiang Hu Gua Qian Gua Jiao Gua Pang Tong Gua |
Trigrams heaven wind Nuclear 38 Inverse 10 Reverse 44 Complement 16 |
Picture at top: XIAO3
CHU4, the ancient characters and their parts.
XIAO3:
The character above (1): 3 grains of rice or sand - small.
The character below, CHU4 or XÜ4, is composed of silk si1
(2) and
field with plants tian2 (3) (or hunting-field with game). Li Leyi
says: silk (2) and field (3): the harvest of silk and crops. According to
others, it is
not si1 but xuan2, profound or dark, dark-colored, black.
Later use: mystic, mysterious. Wang Hongyuan: not silk but bolas, an ancient
throwing weapon xuan2 (2), with the symbol for hunting tian2
(3).
CHU4: animal, livestock. On oracle bones: raise livestock.
In the Mawangdui YiJing both characters are different. Small is shao3,
another version of the character xiao3. The second one is a character
which does not exist in this form anymore, maybe it is yi4: to plant,
sow, cultivate, capacities, art, talent, craft, but this is not certain.
Pronounced as xü4: rear or raise (livestock or children), nourish,
support, cherish, suffocate, suppress, accumulate, store, gather,
keep, meadow, put out to pasture in nature, conform with, follow, tolerate,
support, docile. Dà chù: big cattle.
Xù is exchangeable with the same character with 'plants' added:
collect, store, save up, hoard, reserve, accumulate, restrain, rear, breed.
The characters at left: words or compounds with CHU4
1 Mawangdui: (few agriculture-plant: a picture of a person lifting up a small
plant) little ability, little to plant.
2 (livestock-grass) store, save; grow
3 (livestock herd) raise/rear livestock/poultry
4 (livestock strength) animal power
5 (livestock-heart) nourish, educate, love, cherish, accumulate, gather.
6 (livestock crowd) herd of livestock
7 (duke livestock) male animal (kept for breeding); stud
8 (six livestock) the six domestic animals: pig, ox, goat, horse, fowl,
dog
(Xù is exchangeable with the same character with 'plants' added:
collect, store, save up, hoard, reserve, accumulate, restrain, rear, breed.
Livestock, raising, tending, storing, all add up to sustaining your life.
Clouds are Heaven's thoughts, one's intuition, one's 'guts' telling where danger lurks, and inner responsibility and knowledge without words. Trigram wind (influence) above heaven (law, create). Heaven is the inner trigram, creativity/laws are the source, but it is the wind, the influence, which manifests.
10 LÜ, act in such a way that you can live where you live - and others with you.
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Ban Xiang Hu Gua Qian Gua Jiao Gua Pang Tong Gua |
Trigrams lake heaven Nuclear 37 Inverse 9 Reverse 43 Complement 15 |
Picture at top: LÜ3, the ancient character and its parts.
LÜ3: The character represents a corpse or a sitting man (1), who
is impersonating the deceased person at a funeral. A foot on a road (2):
going. A boat (3), also indicating a shoe: Chinese shoes look like boats.
And a foot (4). The oldest form of this character was probably simpler, but
I could not find one.
LÜ3: shoe, sandal, wear shoes, to tread, follow a track,
traverse, accomplish, (right) conduct, virtue, rite, hold an office, domain
(of a prince), path. Loan for dignity and for li2, durable
happiness.
In the Mawangdui YiJing it is the character li: sacrifice to spirits, asking
for riches or good fortune. Ceremony; rite; ritual, courtesy; etiquette;
manners, gift; present.
The characters at left: words or compounds with LÜ3
1
Mawangdui: (altar-abundance) sacrifice, ritual, gift, courtesy.
2 (shoes go) perform; fulfil; carry out
3 (step shoes) walk; gait
4 (shoes history/experience) curriculum vitae; antecedents
5 (leather shoes) leather shoes
6 (fulfil shoes) keep, fulfil (pledge etc.)
7 (shoes ice) cautious, remain vigilant
8
(shoes new) assume new post.
Shoes, they stand for the way of treading. Not just putting one foot
before the other, but the ritual involved, the way one goes one's road.
Both hexagrams:
Hex.10: Heaven (law, create) above lake (exchange), the
laws and creativity of human interaction. Heaven is the outer trigram, it
manifests in the outer world. The inner
trigram, lake, exchanging, is the source.
For finding one's way in life one needs both, the hard work of
building a life and making a living, and the right way to interact with all
other creatures. They complement each
other.
Most of your life is made from small things, with little weight. So it is easy
to do them in a small and light way. Don’t underestimate them though, the things may be
small, but it is your whole self who does them, and it is your life which
depends on them. You don’t notice how much you lose when you are sloppy or
sleepy or too easy-going. Until, some day, you find your life to miss meaning.
Or you discover that you missed the right turn on some crossing far back, and
you don't like where you are heading now.
Give all your actions all your attention. How you walk in your life and how you
look after all small things in it will decide how its big picture looks.