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Footnotes

XXXV The Thwan of this hexagram expresses its subject more fully and plainly than that of any of the previous thirty-four. It is about a feudal prince whose services to the country have made him acceptable to his king. The king's favour has been shown to him by gifts and personal attentions such as form the theme of more than one ode in the Shih; see especially III, iii, 7. The symbolism of the lines dimly indicates the qualities of such a prince. Žin means to advance.' Hexagrams 46 and 53 agree with this in being called by names that indicate progress and advance. The advance in Žin is like that of the sun, 'the shining light, shining more and more to the perfect day.'

Line 1 is weak, and in the lowest place, and its correlate in 4 is neither central nor in its correct position. This indicates the small and obstructed beginnings of his subject. But by his firm correctness he pursues the way to good fortune; and though the king does not yet believe in him, he the more pursues his noble course.

Line 2 is weak, and its correlate in 5 is also weak. Its subject therefore has still to mourn in obscurity. But his position is central and correct, and he holds on his way, till success comes ere long. The symbolism says he receives it 'from his grandmother;' and readers will be startled by the extraordinary statement, as I was when I first read it. Literally the Text says 'the king's mother,' as P. Regis rendered it,—'Istam magnam felicitatem a matre regis recipit.' He also tries to give the name a historical reference;—to Thâi-Kiang, the grandmother of king Wăn; Thâi-Zăn, his mother; or to Thâi-sze, his wife, and the mother of king Wû and the duke of Kâu, all famous in Chinese history, and celebrated in the Shih. But 'king's father' and 'king's mother' are well-known Chinese appellations for 'grandfather' and 'grandmother.' This is the view given on the passage, by Khăng-žze, Kû Hsî, and the Khang-hsî editors, the latter of whom, indeed, account for the use of the name, instead of 'deceased mother,' which we find in hexagram 62, by the regulations observed in the ancestral temple. These authorities, moreover, all agree in saying that the name points us to line 5, the correlate of 2, and 'the lord of the hexagram.' Now the subject of line 5 is the sovereign, who at length acknowledges the worth of the feudal lord, and gives him the great blessing. The 'New Digest of Comments on the Yî (1686),' in its paraphrase of the line, has, 'He receives at last this great blessing from the mild and compliant ruler.' I am not sure that 'motherly king' would not be the best and fairest translation of the phrase.

Canon McClatchie has a very astonishing note on the name, which he renders 'Imperial Mother' (p. 164):—'That is, the wife of Imperial Heaven (Juno), who occupies the "throne of the diagram," viz. the fifth stroke, which is soft and therefore feminine. She is the Great Ancestress of the human race. See Imp. Ed. vol. iv, Sect. v, p. 25, Com.' Why such additions to the written word?

Line 3 is weak, and in an odd place; but the subjects of 1 and 2 are possessed by the same desire to advance as the subject of this. A common trust and aim possess them; and hence the not unfavourable auspice.

Line 4 is strong, but it is in an even place, nor is it central. It suggests the idea of a marmot (? or rat), stealthily advancing. Nothing could be more opposed to the ideal of the feudal lord in the hexagram.

In line 5 that lord and his intelligent sovereign meet happily. He holds on his right course, indifferent as to results, but things are so ordered that he is, and will continue to be, crowned with success.

Line 6 is strong, and suggests the idea of its subject to the last continuing his advance, and that not only with firm correctness, but with strong force. The 'horns' are an emblem of threatening strength, and though he uses them only in his own state, and against the rebellious there, that such a prince should have any occasion to use force is matter for regret.

App-1-2:XXXV To those who advocate the view that the hexagrams of the Yî have been formed by changes of the lines in manipulating with the divining stalks, the words of paragraph 2, that we have in the figure 'the weak line advanced and moving above,' suggest the derivation of Žin from Kwan, whose 4th and 5th lines are made to change places ( ). But we have seen that that view is inadmissible in the interpretation of the Yî. And a simple explanation of the language at once presents itself. As Hsiang An-shih (Sung dynasty) says, 'Of the three "daughter" trigrams it is only Lî which has its divided line occupying the central place of honour, when it is the upper trigram in a hexagram.'

App-2-2:XXXV The sun rising above the earth, and then travelling up to his meridian height, readily suggests the idea of advancing. On the application of this symbolism, Hû Ping-wăn (Yüan dynasty) says:—'Of strong things there is none so strong as heaven; and hence the superior man after its pattern makes himself strong; of bright things there is none so bright as the sun, and after its pattern he makes himself bright.'

If the subject of line 1 had received an official charge, then when unrecognised by his sovereign, and obstructed in his progress, his correct course would have been to cease to advance, and retire from the office in which he was not allowed to carry out his principles.

There is nothing said on line 2 to explain particularly the symbolism of 'the grandmother' in the Text.

'The course of procedure' in paragraph 6 has still an element of force in it, which is more than 'the firm correctness' that was to king Wăn the ideal character of a feudal lord, and therefore his light is not yet that of the full-orbed sun.