degringolade | Noodling with I Ching

New Culture Movement (1915-1926) / Fu Baoshi/ Heaven and Earth Glow Red

Chill morning. Finished off a cup of coffee. Cast the coins for the I Ching to see what is the word for the day.

Cast Hexagram 11. Moving line on the top.

Looks pretty good until I get to the commentary on the moving line. Like all things in the I Ching, the way of thinking is cyclic. The moving line on the top is telling us that we have reached one end of the pendulum swing and now it is looking like the swing is starting back.

Now, I am of the opinion that the I CHing and the Tao Te Ching are related. When you cast Hexagram 11, it would behoove you to read Chapter 18 of Lao Tse. I use two translations Legge and LeGuin (I don’t know if you can call LeGuin a “Translation”, but she does seem to get to the nut of the chapter well.

Le Guin

Second bests

In the degradation of the great way

come benevolence and righteousness.

With the exaltation of learning and prudence

comes immense hypocrisy.

The disordered family

is full of dutiful children and parents.

The disordered society

is full of loyal patriots.

Legge

When the Great Tao ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness came into vogue. Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy.

When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their manifestation; when the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal ministers appeared.

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For one thing, as a casual reader I'd have interpreted the two English texts in partly opposite ways. Le Guin could be saying just that there are still people doing their duty within disordered institutions, whereas Legge seems to suggest that when institutions become disordered, it will inspire some individuals to step up to the plate and act well (to try to counter the decline?).

FWIW, I have only the Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English translation, which says:

When the great Tao is forgotten,
Kindness and morality arise.
When wisdom and intelligence are born,
The great pretense begins.
When there is no peace within the family,
Filial piety and devotion arise.
When the country is confused and in chaos,
Loyal ministers appear.

So, more like the Legge. Now, I find it confusing that the decline in observation of the Taoist way is explicitly connected with an increase in benevolence and righteousness - surely those are good things? But perhaps the paradoxical message is that if everyone lived according to Tao, people wouldn't have to make efforts to be good sons or good ministers - "dutiful" behaviors would just flow from them automatically and wouldn't need to be remarked upon any more than the river's flowing downhill - so that when people move farther from the Tao, devotion and loyalty become more noticeable and identifiable as they are less ubiquitous. (Contrarily, the suggestion that more wisdom and intelligence leads to more hypocrisy, a bad thing, makes sense. The simply brutish are not necessarily hypocritical, but intellect and education give you lots of ways to rationalize hypocrisy.) Does that make sense to you?

How, incidentally, do you associate the hexagrams of the I Ching with chapters of the Tao Te Ching? Is there a list somewhere? Thanks very much!

I am thinking about it now.

First blush, my take on the chapter is the progression of going from minding your own damn business to sticking your nose into other peoples business and then rationalizing the process to make you look like the good guy.

I will ponder this some more today and maybe write a piece on this as I sip my coffee and think about today's cast. (44)

Noodling with I Ching

Lots to think about there.

I'll Ponder this some more