Progress, Line 1

Progress begins by being stopped. Legge's translation shows the subject wishing to advance and at the same time kept back, directs him to be firm and correct for good fortune, and adds that if trust is not reposed in him he should maintain a large and generous mind and there will be no error. The commentary on the image explains the check by saying that he has not yet received an official charge, and that alone he pursues the correct course.

The whole figure is the bright sun coming forth above the earth, and its judgement describes a prince rewarded with horses and received three times in a single day. That is advancement recognised at the highest level available. This line stands at the other end of it, a yielding stroke at the very bottom of the earth trigram Kun, with no appointment, no standing and nothing to point at as evidence of anything.

What the text supplies in place of a remedy is a manner. Being trusted is not yet available, so the counsel concerns how to be untrusted well: generously, without the resentment that would make the distrust look justified after the fact. The Great Symbolism has the superior man making his own bright virtue more brilliant, which is work done on oneself rather than on the situation, and at this station that is the only work there is to do.

Six at the beginning is a reading for somebody who is ready and has not been asked. The line puts the wish to advance and the fact of being held back in one breath, promises good fortune to firm correctness, and then addresses the harder problem directly: if trust has not been given, keep a large and generous mind and no error follows. The commentary is precise about the cause, which is that no official charge has yet been received.

A querent here is usually not being obstructed by an opponent. They are simply not yet appointed, and the distinction matters because it removes almost every action that would otherwise suggest itself. There is nothing to push against. The stroke is yielding at the foot of the earth trigram Kun, and the text keeps it there, asking for correctness held alone rather than any demonstration mounted to convince somebody.

When the line changes, the lower trigram Kun becomes Zhen and the figure becomes Biting Through, King Wen 21, in which an obstruction between the jaws is removed by one decisive bite. That destination names what this line will not yet permit. Something is in the way and will eventually have to be dealt with sharply, but a person without a charge who bites first is the one who ends up in the wrong, which is why the counsel here is generosity instead.