Holding the Purpose While Giving Up the Ground

Six in the second place tells a querent what to keep. The situation is one of withdrawal, and the line does not argue with the withdrawal; it identifies the single commitment that travels with the person rather than staying behind with the position being surrendered. Bound as if by a thong of yellow oxhide that nothing can break, the subject is unshakeable about a purpose while being entirely willing to move.

The position supports that combination. A yielding stroke correctly occupies an even place and holds the centre of the mountain trigram Gen, and yellow is the colour of the centre. A querent drawing this line is usually being asked to concede something and is afraid that conceding it means conceding everything. The text separates the two cleanly. Ground is negotiable and purpose is not, and the reading is a good one precisely because the person is in a position to tell which is which.

When the line changes, the lower trigram Gen becomes Xun and the figure becomes Coming to Meet, King Wen 44, in which a single yielding line arrives beneath five strong ones and begins to grow. That is a caution attached to a favourable line rather than a contradiction of it. What one holds to unbreakably will eventually meet something it did not choose, and a bond that no pressure can loosen can still be reached by what walks quietly up underneath it.