Influence Felt in the Thighs, and a Grip Fastened on Whoever Leads

At the third station the influence reaches the thighs, the part of a body with no independent judgement about where it goes. Legge's translation shows the subject moving his thighs while keeping close hold of those whom he follows, and going forward on that basis brings occasion for regret. The commentary is unusually severe: he does not want to rest in his place, his will is set on following others, and what he holds in his grasp is low.

The image works because thighs carry a person wherever the body has already decided to go. Two stations earlier a toe stirred and the text passed no judgement on it; one station earlier the calves were told to stay still and promised good fortune for obeying. Here the movement has been conceded and the only question left is whose movement it is, and the answer the text gives is that it belongs to somebody else entirely.

The stroke is strong in an odd place, correct by the ordinary rule, at the top of the lower trigram Gen. That correctness saves nothing, which is worth noticing, because the fault described is not structural but a matter of direction. A firm line at the summit of the mountain trigram has the strength to hold its own ground and spends it instead on gripping whatever happens to be moving ahead of it.