Hexagram 43 and 44

Hexagram 43

  In China the flooding of the Yellow River was a big issue. It happened many times, and millions drowned.
The water takes the loose soil along and then deposits it elsewhere. People have to make the dikes along its borders higher and higher, nowadays the river is 10 meters higher than its surroundings. Now and then the water would be so high or so wild, that these dikes broke through. With disastrous result.

  In the time of Yu the Great one of these floods happened, or maybe more than one. He got everyone together to get the water away again. There was not that much land, and lots of people even back then, so they needed the land. And most of all, they did not want to get drowned. He dug canals, and worked so hard that he ruined his own health. He could hardly walk anymore. He was a very authoratitive man, but in line 5 he had to give in to others. The way he walked, "The buttocks without skin. One moves poorly now, holding on to a goat", has turned into an expression of having to subordinate.

  I think hexagram 8 is about the organization of conquering the flood, getting everyone to assist. And 43 about the dike breaking through. By extension about everything which can be compared/connected in one way or another to a breakthrough and what happens then.

  It has to be dealt with from out a central place, not everyone doing something at random.
"One must resolutely make the matter known
At the court of the king.
It must be announced truthfully. Danger.
It's necessary to notify one's own city.
It doesn't further to resort to arms.
It furthers one to undertake something." ¹)

  Many people hated him for what he did, he had to reorganize the distribution of the fields, often dig right through properties in order to make the water flow away again, and China has a history of not reckoning that much with people's rights. So they cursed him, even though he had worked so much himself as well
"To be powerful in the cheekbones
Brings misfortune.
The superior man is firmly resolved.
He walks alone and is caught in the rain.
He's bespattered,
And people murmur against him.
No blame."

  Yu had trouble walking
"There's no skin on his thighs,
And walking comes hard.
If a man were to let himself be led like a sheep,
Remorse would disappear.
But if these words are heard
They won't be believed."
Goats (sheep and goat is the same character) are very handy to hold on to if you have trouble walking. They are easy to tame, and they have nice handles on their heads.
  Yu literally worked his ass off, but the expression 'showing your bare buttocks' is known in many countries.
A sheep is a lucky omen: giving in and going for the best solution: 'remorse would disappear',
About the words: the character means especially 'insincere'. So no honest words here, but words that save the peace.

  When you see the river is rising and you don't warn anyone..
"No cry.
In the end misfortune comes."
'cry' is a proposition, without a proposition no cooperation

) I use Wilhelms translation, because almost everyone knows that one, and mine can be seen on the hexagram page.

Hexagram 44

I think the etymology of the tag, "giving birth", is important: this is not seduction or sex ‘l’art pour l’art‘ but with the intent to create something new. Many meanings of Gou are positive (like luck, opportunity, meeting of minds, win confidence, good, excellent), and for the ancient Chinese having a son was extremely important. I think the meaning ‘empress’ was the title for the wife who gave the emperor an heir (those who could not were often simply disposed of).

  The meeting of minds can also create new things. Toynbee: “Creation is the outcome of an encounter … genesis is a function of interaction”.
  The meeting of your own mind, inside, is the beginning of finding your creativity. Meditation is fundamentally a discussion with your dark mind, your sun talking with your moon, the king meeting the queen, mysterium conjunctionis.
Encounters of this kind are triggers of creativity, they are not meant as a first step for settling together, or for any other way of holding on to things. Both sides should be true to themselves, pure and strong like Heaven, without human practical or selfish motives.

  The trigrams: wind below heaven. From the outside inwards heaven which inspires. From the inside outwards inspiration which is turned into creativity. It is not positive not negative, but can be either one on a very large scale. The one who gets inspired by a great idea can build a big business. A businessman ‘inspired’ by a greedy slut can ruin both a life and a business. A wife ‘inspired’ by love bears her husband children. Every artist needs inspiration to create, most things which come into being start from out a spark of inspiration. A tiny seed which grows into a viable baby.

 Most problems ask for simple practical solutions. Inspiration is more than that, it does not come from what is obvious. A cathedral, a baby, Hamlet, the Upanishads, love, they all start where human emotions cannot be controlled. In the deepest (or maybe highest) regions of mind and soul and body. Something fights itself into the light from there, and sweeps the whole person along.

But be wary: it is hard to to distinguish from its twin sister temptation, the one who can destroy more thoroughly than anything else. Heaven can lift someone up to the highest peaks, or crush him down into nothing when he loses him/herself. That way love can be a destroyer instead of creator, and every artist knows how torturing a creative life is. Moving over high mountains and through deep gloomy valleys.