Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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The Line Statement and the Flight Downward

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The Line Statement and the Flight Downward

Legge's translation of the fourth line gives its subject as fluttering down, not relying on his own rich resources but calling in his neighbours, a picture the commentary elsewhere associates with genuine sincerity rather than mere lack of means. The image of fluttering rather than descending with weight or display marks a deliberate lightness, wealth set aside in favor of open company with those nearby.

Six in the fourth place opens Kun, the upper trigram of Earth, immediately across the boundary the third line watched over, and it is the first yielding line the hexagram has shown since its opening three lines of unbroken yang. Where those earlier lines advanced through shared strength, this line's virtue is the opposite gesture, a willing descent that forgoes personal advantage in order to draw others in without pretense or boastfulness.

Set against Peace's Judgment, the great come and the small go, the fourth line marks the point where that arriving greatness begins to be matched by an answering humility from what receives it. Legge's text frames this not relying on rich resources as trust placed in relationship rather than in possession, the same value the third line's sincerity anticipated from the other side of the boundary.

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