The Army

The host sets out, and the line looks only at how it does so. The commentary warns that “if those rules be not observed, there will be evil”.

Legge reports what the rules are said to be, “first, that the war be for a righteous end; and second, that the manner of conducting it, especially at the outset, be right”. He admits that how this follows from a broken line in the first place “has not been sufficiently explained”.

When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 19, Approach

This is the only whole line of the hexagram, and the only line whose text speaks of good fortune. It shows the leader “in the midst of the host”, and the commentary says “he has received the favour of Heaven”.

The two translations differ on the king's part. Wilhelm has “The king bestows a triple decoration.” Legge reads the orders as the appointment to command, “and not of any rewards conferred on him as a tribute to his merit”. He quotes a reading in which thrice means that the appointment came to him “with the entire confidence of the king”.

When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 2, The Receptive

The two translations part here as well. Legge has a host that may have “many inefficient leaders”, and Wilhelm has an army that “carries corpses in the wagon”. Both end badly, and the commentary says “great will be its want of success”.

Legge calls the symbolism of this line “very perplexing”. He grounds his reading in the line itself, which “is divided and weak, and occupies the place of a strong line”, as if its subject had climbed above the general to take the command.

Legge also says that his own translation of nearly thirty years before went the way of the dead in the carts. He now holds that the divided third line “cannot be forced to have such an indication”, and that the meaning he gives is “more legitimate, taken character by character”.

When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 46, Pushing Upward

The host draws back and the text finds no error. Legge explains that the line “is weak and not central”, so that retreat is natural for it, and he concludes that “the retreat will be right in the circumstances”. The commentary agrees that “there has been no failure in the regular course”.

When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 40, Deliverance

The line opens with “birds in the fields”, which Legge reads as “parties attacking for plunder”. To seize them is without error.

The warning comes after. The oldest son leads the host, and if younger men are let into the command the text ends in evil, however firm and correct he may be. The commentary says “the employment of such men is improper”. Legge sees in this line the king, who “cedes the use of all his power to the general symbolised by line 2”. He takes the oldest son to be the subject of the second line and the younger men to be those of the third and fourth, “who would cause evil if admitted to share the command”.

When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 29, The Abysmal

The top line speaks of neither good fortune nor evil. The great ruler gives out his charges, and the commentary says “thereby he rightly apportions merit”. Small men are kept out of such places because “they are sure to throw the states into confusion”.

Legge calls the lesson “true and important”. He adds that “the critics seem unable to deduce it from the nature of the line”.

When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 4, Youthful Folly