Opposition, Line 4

The fourth line is alone and finds somebody. Legge's translation shows its subject solitary amid the disunion, meeting a good man, blending sincere desires with him, and standing in a position of peril where there will nonetheless be no mistake. Loneliness is stated first and it is not treated as a mood. It is a structural fact about where the line stands in the figure.

The reason is that this stroke has no proper correlate. It is strong in an even place and therefore incorrectly seated at the base of the upper trigram Li, and the line it would answer at the foot of the figure is strong as well, so the ordinary rule leaves it no partner anywhere. What the text describes is two lines of the same kind coming together with no structural warrant for doing so, which is the characteristic move of this hexagram. When the proper connections have failed, likeness does the work that correspondence usually does.

Peril is named and then set aside. The classic does not pretend the position is safe, because a connection made outside the ordinary pattern has no support beyond itself, and the sincerity of both parties is the only thing holding it up. That is why the text specifies the blending of desires rather than an agreement or an alliance. What makes the meeting hold is that neither man is performing it for anybody, in a hexagram where almost everything else is being misread by somebody.

Nine in the fourth place is a reading about finding one other person. The subject stands alone in the general estrangement, meets a good man, and joins sincerity with him; the position is dangerous and there is no mistake in it. A querent drawing this line is usually isolated in a situation where the connections that ought to support them have failed, and the counsel is that the remedy available is singular rather than general.

The line is precise about scale. It does not restore the querent to a group, repair the estrangement at large, or promise that anything wider improves. One meeting, entered into honestly, is the whole of what is on offer, and the classic calls that sufficient. Where the danger comes from is worth naming as well. A bond formed outside the ordinary structure has nothing external propping it up, so it stands or falls entirely on whether both people meant it.

When the line changes, the upper trigram Li becomes Gen and the figure becomes Decrease, King Wen 41, in which something is taken from below to add to what is above and the classic observes that two simple baskets may be enough to present at the offering. That suits a line whose entire resource is one honest connection. What is asked for is a reduction of means, and Decrease is where the classic argues that sincerity covers the ground the means no longer reach.