Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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The King's Hunt on Three Sides and Union That Does Not Compel

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The King's Hunt on Three Sides and Union That Does Not Compel

The ruling line of Holding Together is illustrated by a hunt rather than by a court. Legge's translation offers it as the most illustrious instance of seeking union, and describes a king pursuing game in only three quarters of the field, letting everything before him escape, while the people of his towns do not warn one another to prevent that escape. The small commentary reads the good fortune as arising from the correct and central position, and reads the king's neglect of what goes from him and acceptance of what comes to him as the whole point of the picture.

This is the single firm line in the figure, central and correctly placed in the upper trigram Kan, the one stroke every yielding line in the hexagram is drawn toward. It could compel. The hunt image exists to show that it declines to. A ring closed on all four sides catches everything and teaches nothing; a ring deliberately left open catches only what does not run, and what stays has stayed by choice.

The detail about the townspeople is easy to pass over and carries much of the weight. They are not enforcing the ruler's advantage, not closing the gap he left, not competing to prove their zeal. Their unconcern is itself evidence of the order the line describes. Union at this center is secure enough that nobody needs to police it, which is what makes it the hexagram's model of attachment rather than merely its most powerful position.

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