Eyes Turned Upward for Favor, and the Regret of Delay

Two regrets are named in the third line and they are not the same regret. Legge's translation shows its subject looking upward while indulging the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction, and warns that there will be occasion for repentance, with more of it if the change comes late. The first regret belongs to the posture itself, a person whose enthusiasm is entirely directed at someone above them. The second belongs to how long they keep it up after seeing what it is.

The stroke is yielding in an odd place, incorrectly positioned, at the top of the lower trigram Kun and pressed directly against the hexagram's single strong line above it. Proximity is the trouble. This line is close enough to the source of the figure's energy to warm itself there permanently, and near enough to mistake that warmth for its own. Nothing in the position generates anything, and the upward gaze is a description of that emptiness rather than a moral judgement on it.

What separates this line from ordinary flattery is the second clause, which treats the situation as still recoverable. Regret is certain, but its size is not fixed, and the text makes it a direct function of delay. Enthusiasm borrowed from above can be set down, and the earlier it is set down the less it costs. The line is unusual in the hexagram for saying plainly that the fault has already been committed and that the only remaining question is how quickly it stops.