Hexagrams 53 and 54

Hexagram 53 and 54

Picture at top: JIAN4, the ancient character and its parts. JIAN4: At left water, at right an axe. The middle part of the character (1) is a cart or wheel, but the old character (2 or 3), a vehicle, might be a waterwheel, especially because 'water' is added. In old times common people had no carts, but they did have waterwheels. Without the wheel the character means cut through, chop off (4). The middle+right part is interesting: it is the deepened line of a woodcut: a trench or groove. Like the channels for the water from the waterwheel. But Jian is also the name of a large calm river which flows from its source near the Fujian-Zhejiang border through the Wuyi tea district and finally into the Min river. JIAN4: (drop-wise:) gradually, by degrees, to flow. JIAN1: to soak, to reach, imbue with, influence, flow into (river), deceive. CHAN2: High and craggy. ZHAN1: drip (tears). Exchangeable with qian2: traverse water, submerge, dive into, hide. The characters at left: words or compounds with JIAN4 1 (wheel-axe) chop, cut, behead, cut off. "Cut asunder, cut off, decapitate; chariot with axes on it" --Karlgren. The whirling of an axe brandished" --Wieger. 2 (gradual gradual) gradually, by degrees, little by little 3 (day-cutoff) temporary 4 (mountain-cutoff) towering; 5 (day gradual) gradually 6 (heart-cutoff) ashamed 7 (earth-cutoff) moat, chasm. 8 (capture cutoff) capture and behead Gradually flowing, gradually growing. The characters have more to do with flowing, but jian stands for everything which develops gradually.
Ban Xiang Hu Gua Qian Gua Jiao Gua Pang Tong Gua	Trigrams mountain wind Nuclear 64 Inverse 54 Reverse 18 Complement 54
54

Picture at top: GUI1 MEI4, the ancient character and its parts. GUI1: The character above is composed of (1): mound, or rolling, waving, but the meaning is not certain. It can also mean testes or buttocks, meaning 'military', or it might be some ceremonial object. GUI1: return, go to, bring to, go as a bride to the new home. Zhui1 (2), OB: pursue and attack. 7: OB variant, 7a E-Zhou variant. MEI4: the left side is Wei4: (3 and 4) a picture of a luxuriant tree. Its original meaning was 'abundant', and it is also the 8th Earthly Branch (late summer, animal is sheep). Now its meaning is 'not yet' and my opinion is, that it indicated the time of year when everything was at its maximum development, but fruit were not yet ripe. Also a very good description of a young girl who is almost a woman. Mei-mei: little sister. The right side is a kneeling woman (5), sometimes with emphasis on the head (6). Gui ’return’ also means to die. 8 and 8a: two E-Zhou variants. MEI4: dawn (before sunrise), younger sister. After or below; a secondary wife is also called thus. The characters at left: words or compounds with GUI1 1 (return knot) sum up, end (story/etc.) 2 (mouth-notyet) flavor, taste 3 (return accept) sum up; conclude; induce 4 (sun-notyet) no sun; dark; obscure; hidden; to feign 5 (end return) eventually; in the end; after all 6 (return attach) submit to another's authority 7 (return true) revert to one's natural self, (Budd.), die 8 (return even or complete) final outcome; ultimate result Gui, return, has usually to do with summing up, an end result. Like the end of stories, "and they lived happily ever after". Here it is the beginning of the story: the maiden who submits to her new life as married woman.
Ban Xiang Hu Gua Qian Gua Jiao Gua Pang Tong Gua	Trigrams lake thunder Nuclear 63 Inverse 53 Reverse 17 Complement 53