Deliverance
- In Chinese
- 解 xiè
- Above
- The Arousing, thunder
- Below
- The Abysmal, water
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 40 means
Hexagram 40 is thunder over water. Legge calls it the symbol of loosing, of “untying a knot or unravelling a complication”.
It comes right after hexagram 39, and Legge reads it as the condition in which the obstruction and difficulty of that hexagram have been removed.
The judgment gives two cases, and both end well. Where nothing more is called for, “there will be good fortune in coming back (to the old conditions)”. Where something is still to be done, there is “good fortune in the early conducting of them”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
解利西南。无所往，其來復吉。有攸往，夙吉。
DELIVERANCE. The southwest furthers. If there is no longer anything where one has to go, Return brings good fortune. If there is still something where one has to go, Hastening brings good fortune.
it furthers it is favorablegood fortune it goes well
The image
雷雨作，《解》。君子以赦過宥罪。
Thunder and rain set in: The image of DELIVERANCE. Thus the superior man pardons mistakes And forgives misdeeds.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment reads the name from the two trigrams. One stands for peril and goes on to the one that stands for movement, and so “By movement there is an escape from the peril”.
The same commentary sets the hexagram at the end of winter. “When heaven and earth are freed (from the grasp of winter), we have thunder and rain.” With them “the buds of the plants and trees that produce the various fruits begin to burst”.
The commentary then takes the judgment phrase by phrase. Of the south-west it says that the movement “will win all”. The good fortune in coming back shows “that such action is that of the due medium”, and the early conducting of what is left shows “that such operations will be successful”.
The image is thunder and rain together. From it the commentary draws a rule of mildness for the superior man, who “forgives errors, and deals gently with crimes”. Wilhelm gives the same rule in his own words. The superior man “pardons mistakes And forgives misdeeds”.
Legge reads the first case of the judgment as advice against needless change. If nothing more is needed, “the sooner things fall into their old channels the better”. He adds that “The new masters of the kingdom should not be anxious to change all the old manners and ways.”
For the second case his advice is just as short. “If further operations be necessary, let them be carried through without delay.” He also observes that the removal of small men, whom he calls “unworthy ministers or officers”, is not mentioned in what he calls the Thwan and appears in more than one of the lines.
The six lines
First line
无咎。
Without blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
This line gives a verdict and no picture. Wilhelm has only “Without blame”. The commentary finds the reason in the pairing of this broken line with the whole line in the fourth place, which “are in correlation”. Legge agrees that the weakness here “is compensated for by its strong correlate in 4”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 54, The Marrying Maiden
Second line
田獲三狐，得黃矢，貞吉。
One kills three foxes in the field And receives a yellow arrow. Perseverance brings good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
A hunter catches three foxes and obtains arrows that Legge glosses as “yellow (= golden)”. The line names good fortune and ties it to firm correctness. The commentary says this good fortune “is due to its subject holding the due mean”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 16, Enthusiasm
Third line
負且乘，致寇至，貞吝。
If a man carries a burden on his back And nonetheless rides in a carriage, He thereby encourages robbers to draw near. Perseverance leads to humiliation.
humiliation it leads to embarrassment
A porter rides in a carriage with his load, and the sight invites attack. Legge voices what onlookers say. “How did he get there? The things cannot be his own.” The commentary leaves no doubt about who is at fault, since “It is he himself that tempts the robbers to come”.
The line ends in regret, however firm and correct the man may try to be. The commentary calls the sight “a thing to be ashamed of”. Legge adds that the subject of the line “cannot protect himself, nor accomplish anything good”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 32, Duration
Fourth line
解而拇，朋至斯孚。
Deliver yourself from your great toe. Then the companion comes, And him you can trust.
no verdict
The line speaks to its subject directly and tells him to “Remove your toes”. Legge explains that the toe is the first line, a pairing that in his words “will not be productive of good”. Once it is removed, friends come and there is “mutual confidence”.
Legge does not claim to explain everything here. How the friends who come are pictured in the figure, he writes, “I do not perceive”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 7, The Army
Fifth line
君子維有解，吉，有孚于小人。
If only the superior man can deliver himself, It brings good fortune. Thus he proves to inferior men that he is in earnest.
good fortune it goes well
This is the place of the ruler, whose task Legge describes as “removing all that is contrary to the peace and good order of the kingdom”. The line names good fortune and says that even small men show confidence in him. The commentary adds that “small men will of themselves retire”.
Legge has the ruler do this “with the help of his strong correlate in 2”, the whole line in the second place. Wilhelm words the line differently. “If only the superior man can deliver himself, It brings good fortune.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 47, Oppression
Sixth line
公用射隼于高墉之上，獲之，无不利。
The prince shoots at a hawk on a high wall. He kills it. Everything serves to further.
nothing that does not further everything is favorable
A prince shoots a falcon on a high wall and hits it. Legge notes that this is “the highest line in the figure, but not the place of the ruler”, and so a feudal duke appears in it. The commentary reads the shot plainly, “thus he removes (the promoters of) rebellion”. Wilhelm closes the line with “Everything serves to further.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 64, Before Completion
Hexagram 40 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 40 unchanging, what remains is the two cases of the judgment, a return to the old conditions when nothing more is called for and prompt action when something is, and the image of the superior man who forgives errors.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 40 mean?
It describes the loosening of a difficulty, which Legge compares to “untying a knot or unravelling a complication”. The judgment finds good fortune both in returning to the old conditions and in finishing early what is still to be done.
What does hexagram 40 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 40 that is the good fortune of coming back or of acting early, and the rule that the superior man “forgives errors, and deals gently with crimes”.
What does hexagram 40 changing to 7 mean?
It is hexagram 40 with its fourth line moving. That line tells its subject to “Remove your toes” so that trusted friends may come, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 7.
What does hexagram 40 changing to 64 mean?
It is hexagram 40 with its top line moving. That line shows a prince shooting a falcon on a high wall, an act the text calls “in every way advantageous”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 64.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Kieh in James Legge. Deliverance in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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