I Ching, Yijing or Zhou Yi
"Oracle of the moon": © 2000 LiSe
Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon
Hexagram 53
Jiàn, the Waterwheel
The waterwheel makes sure that the field will not dry out. The slow and constant supply of water makes the plants grow harmoniously, without stagnations, abundant.
The wild goose can only reach its far-away destination, and come back every year, by beating its wings second after second, never losing its strength or direction.
Every relation needs a constant supply of water, of feelings, regular love, day after day.
Starting something is usually not the most difficult part; it is harder to keep it going. Every day caring for it, feeding, repairing: every creation has to be kept alive day after day, year after year - not letting it deteriorate into a treadmill.
JIAN: The middle part of the character (1) is a cart or wheel, but the old character (2 or 3) looks more like a waterwheel. 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.
JIAN: gradually; by degrees, dip/soak in liquid.
The trigrams: Wind above Mountain:
On the mountain is wind: Gradualness.
The noble one stays in dignity and virtue and improves the common people.
The lower trigram Mountain can be you, or your family, or the project this is about. The upper trigram Wind says, that everything solid can only stay that way with exchange with the world around it.
On its own it will grow old and decrepit. It needs care, day in day out. It has to talk and listen, to give and take, to love and enjoy.