Influence Felt in the Calves, and the Fortune That Lies in Not Rising

The second station is where a body would ordinarily begin to move, and the text stops it. Legge's translation shows the subject moving the calves of his leg and gives evil, then reverses the outcome entirely on a condition: if he abides quietly in his place there will be good fortune. The commentary explains that through compliance with his circumstances there will be no injury. One line carries both verdicts, and which of them applies is settled by the person rather than by the situation.

Anatomically the calf is the part that commits a body to a step. A toe can stir without consequence, but calves that move carry the whole person forward. The hexagram is tracing an influence upward through a body, and this is the first station at which the impulse has enough purchase to produce an action, which is exactly why it is the first at which restraint is worth a verdict.

The stroke is yielding in an even seat, correct by the ordinary rule, and it holds the centre of the lower trigram Gen. Gen is the mountain, whose attribute is stopping. A correct central line inside the trigram of stillness is being asked to be what its own trigram already is, and the good fortune promised for staying put is therefore not passivity but agreement between a line and the figure it stands in.