I Ching, Yijing or Zhou Yi
"Oracle of the moon": © 2000 LiSe
Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon
The image of hexagram 31
Xián, complete
What does it mean, 'inner' and 'outer trigram' (popup)
Gèn below Duì: Gèn is a real presence with solid intentions, not one with flighty actions. Dui is a place of an abundance of creatures. The wetlands where life is easy and joyful, where you can start a family or find friends or form a group.
Ideogram of the hexagram name: a halberd and a mouth. It means bringing together, which can be in big ways, like a whole country, or small, just two people. Hence in the judgment "Taking a wife" and in the image "Receiving people by emptiness". The meaning of the halberd is not really clear (yet).
Xián: together, all, both, total, unite, case or cover, complete, fully, generally, act together, union, harmony, universal, continual, everywhere, to move, to touch, influence, transform, dissatisfied, finish, resent, salt, salty. Xián you (unite have): have under control (the 9 provinces). Xián is exchangeable with Chéng: to become, turn into, to bring to completion, succeed, name of the city which brought people and ancestors together (see story). In the Mawangdui Yi Jing this hexagram is called qīn: respect; obey with respect, imperial. When respect is missing, then the other meaning of xián emerges: wounding with the mouth.
The 'Great Image' says: At the top of the mountain is a marsh: affecting. The noble one receives people by emptiness.
Hex.31 is the contrast of 41, Dimishing, which is about controlling your feelings and decreasing where necessary.
Hex.31 is about completion, uniting, harmony and influencing another to that effect.
People need contact, and it is a very good and beautiful thing. Enjoy it. But ..
Evaluate influences very severely, even those which seem innocent or beautiful. Remember Snowwhite’s apple? She looked at the beautiful apple, instead of the person who offered it.
Usually people don't want to hurt, they influence with the best intentions. They just don't realize how much self-interest these intentions contain. So be careful. A nice kiss can in the long term turn out to be a nasty bite. Don’t blame the one who did it, just avoid anything that does not agree with yourself.
The trigrams say so: inside the mountain, which is you as autonomous individual, outside the lake, the exchange. The contact can only be real and good if your true individuality and conscience are its base.