Hex 59-60
The measure of all things

While 59 has to do with letting go of rules, borders, ideas and securities,
60 gives the boundaries which give life its shape and substance.

Hexagram 59

Characters and words of which huan is a component: 1 (hand-lively) change, exchange 2 (mouth-lively) call; call out to 3 (disperse correct) melt away; vanish; disappear, completely. 4 (fire-lively) shining, glowing 5 (sick-lively) sick, ailing 6 (disperse sweat) expanding like sweat on the body: edict of the emperor, to expand, brilliant. See hex.59 line 4. 7 (disperse scatter) slacken, lax, disperse. 8 (disperse disperse) with great waves, the swollen stream of a river, overflowing (of flood) 9 (disperse too-much) brilliant, elegant. 10 (disperse emit) high-spirited General image of all these meanings: when water and wind combine, the floods rise, expand, disperse. When something "huans", it gets ample and wide.

  Hexagram 59
The character: At the left side of the character water or a river, at the right side a character meaning lively, excellent, gay, beautiful. It is a drawing of a man, at the entrance of a cave, looking sharply around with a stick in his hand. Meaning of the whole character: disperse, expand, scatter, ample.

The danger of letting go of boundaries is a loss of a safe place, of the sense of personal space. Alcohol and other drugs can cause this. Hexagrams 59 and 60 form a pair, each can only be positive when the other also has its place. Without 60, 59 becomes disintegration, without 59, 60 becomes rigidity.

   River forelands or washlands are the insurance against floods. A river will flood whenever the water rises too high, quays or campshotting only make the problem worse. When you try to defend yourself against the waters, they can be extremely dangerous. But when you give them the freedom to expand, they do no harm. Maybe they even bring fertility to the washlands, where the cattle can graze in dryer seasons.
   This is also the way to dissolve problems, by giving them the room to expand. When your mind has this space, it can cope with any trouble, a life with forelands will never be run over.
The greatest danger for living is rigid limits.  

   Don't hope for a distant future where all roads will come together. It is the illusion of perspective: when you walk towards it, the point recedes. Make your place here, where you are, and be aware of all these different roads, all opening possibilities. At least if you allow them to be open. That is why in your life right here you should create temples, where rational and restricted thoughts do not exist.
   Rationally you will not be able to cross the stream, for that you need your soul, or the support of the gods. Remove the quais from your soul, like a river with washlands. It will never flood, but it will flow wide or narrow, according to what it needs. And it can be crossed whenever necessary, because it stays shallow enough, without dangerous rapids. As long as waters can move freely, they move gently.

   All the lines of hex.59 are saying that taking measures – strong, or focused, or sensible, or preconceived – is not the best thing to do.
   59.1: don't aim too high (changing to 61, stay in your own truth,),
   59.2: look if any opportunity opens up (changing to 20, contemplate),
   59.3: move like the wind, flowing around objects, able to pass through the most narrow apertures (changing to 57),
   59.4: keep your group/mind/actions open, free from restrictions, and thus free from opposition (changing to 6, contention),
   59.5: trust providence (changing to 4, ignorance, childlike openness),
   59.6 Do not fix your emotions in yourself, let them flow like water (changing to 29, repeating danger).

Denis_m (from Shanghai): Huan4 often means we are split apart from familiar ties. It also used to mean 'distraught' or psychically jangled, in a diagnostic sense. During the Wei-Jin period, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove called Xi Kang wrote an essay on drug-taking called "On Caring for Life." He warned about elixirs that will leave you feeling "confused (huan4) and unintegrated, like a bundle of raw nerves."

Hexagram 60

Characters and words of which jie is a component: 1 (wood-section) comb 2 (section day) festival; holiday 3 (spring section) Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) 4 (sound section) syllable, (mus.) key; pitch. 5 (section play-music) rhythm; beat 6 (inclination section) plot; story, details; circumstances 7 (thin section) details; particulars 8 (ceremony section) etiquette; protocol; ceremony 9 (section ability) save energy All these meanings have to do with a certain amount or segment. A bamboo-tube was used for standards like the pitch in music, measure of capacity, weights. The 24 Qi (periods) of the sun-calendar consist of 12 jie (segments) and 12 zhong (centers), alternating. Solstices and equinoxes are zhong, the beginnings of the four seasons are jie. The 24 periods are the jie qi.

  Hexagram 60
   The character: A man is kneeling before a pot of food, about to start eating, meaning: approach, thereupon, attain to. And at the top bamboo. Whole character: knots or joints of bamboo or other plants.
   Meaning of the whole character: degree, rank, regular division, juncture, circumstance, regulate, discriminate, to moderate, frugality, rule, law, baton, tessera, token of authority, capital of pillar. A part of a book, season, period of time or music: chapter, term, time-interval, holiday.
   All these meanings have to do with a certain amount. A bamboo-tube was used for standards like the pitch in music, measure of capacity, weights.

   Everything has its own size, its own basic pitch and its own rhythm. It will resonate with the vibrations which harmonize with it, and the unrelated ones will pass by unheard, unanswered. Life needs these restrictions, otherwise it will blow its top. A composer knows the limits of his composition, when he exceeds them, it will not become music, but a shambles.
   The bamboo joints set the size of the limbs of the bamboo. A big one supporting a high stalk, small ones for the young ones or the tops. Every size has its own function, its own volume and its own sound. A piece of it with a certain length and diameter was used for the standard of the whole country. The measure of capacity, the key of music, and by extension the holidays (holy days), which are the bamboo joints of the time and set its length.

   Life needs rhythm and structure, but do not accept rigid ones, which are not alive. Make your own music. Create a garden like a fairytale, cook a king’s meal, love like Romeo. By leaving the borders of the common one carves marks in the landscape of the soul, and life will not longer be the straight gray line from birth till death. It will be a scenery with heights and lowlands, giving structure and energy to the soul. Later they will be the rich memories.
   Everything moves in cycles. If you get this hexagram in a time of despair, then accept its comfort that there will be an end to it, after this a new cycle will begin.

   Quote from Laurence G. Boldt ("Zen and the Art of Making A Living", Boldt views work as Art..)
"Artists play with limitation. They neither deny, nor are they overwhelmed by it. There are only so many words in any language, but that doesn't keep the poet from writing. There is only a certain range of color the eye can see, but this doesn't keep the painter from painting (...) The artist accepts the limitations of form, not with fear and dread, but as the starting point of creation." He also adds: "You can be the artist of your life by recognizing that, for all of your limitations, you are basically adequate to life. For all of its difficulties, life is basically adequate for you. Accept that, while it may not fit some imaginary conception of perfection, the world is basically adequate; and you are basically adequate to the world. Be here now with what is, and play with the stuff of your life. If you have twelve crayons in your box, use your creativity and resourcefulness to make the best picture you can with these. Don't spend your time worrying that someone else has forty-eight or sixty-four crayons (...)"