Friday, May 8, 2026

Yi 150: Disaster if i Keep Drinking

 


Line-6

Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject with the horses of her chariot obliged to retreat, and weeping tears of blood in streams.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Horse and wagon part. Bloody tears flow.

Blofeld: He hesitates like a man trotting to and fro or like one shedding blood and tears.

Liu: He goes back and forth on horseback. He sheds tears with blood! [Arrogance leads to misfortune, perhaps extreme misfortune.]

Ritsema/Karcher: Riding a horse, arraying thus. Weeping blood, coursing thus.

Shaughnessy: A team of horses vexatious-like, dipping blood streamingly.

Cleary(1): Mounted on a horse, not going forward, weeping tears of blood.

Wu: The horse carriage falters along. Tears roll down from the rider’s eyes.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: She weeps tears of blood in streams -- how can the state thus emblemed continue long? Wilhelm/Baynes: How could one tarry long in this! Blofeld: How could a flow of blood and tears endure for long? [In other words, our present troubles will pass away in time.] Ritsema/Karcher: Wherefore permitting long-living indeed? Cleary (2): Weeping tears of blood – what can last? Wu: Only despair remains.

Legge: The sixth line is magnetic, as is her third line correlate. She is at the extremity of Peril -- the game is up. What can remain for her in such a case but terror and abject weeping?

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: The man fails to overcome the initial difficulties and despair.

Wing: You have lost your perspective. You can no longer see your initial difficulties realistically, nor can you find your way out. This is disgraceful and will cause you much regret. 

Anthony: Desire and fear prevail. The child in us rules. Despairing, we give up our path. “One should not persist in this.”

DeKorne: Lines two, four and six all show horses in retreat: strong images of psychological turmoil and confusion; two and four have proper correlates however, so they present the possibility of at least some kind of reconciliation. Here, the correlate is line three, who is depicted as being "lost in the woods.” At its most neutral, the image is one of severe disunion. Wilhelm and Blofeld state that the situation is not a lasting one, so all need not be lost if you seek a totally new and perhaps currently unrecognized connection.

"In our ordinary life we are limited and bound in a thousand ways -- the prey of illusions and phantasms, the slaves of unrecognized complexes, tossed hither and thither by external influences, blinded and hypnotized by deceiving appearances. No wonder then that man, in such a state, is often discontented, insecure and changeable in his moods, thoughts and actions. Feeling intuitively that he is "one," and yet finding that he is "divided unto himself," he is bewildered and fails to understand either himself or others. No wonder that he, not knowing or understanding himself, has no self- control and is continually involved in his own mistakes and weaknesses; that so many lives are failures, or are at least limited and saddened by diseases of mind and body, or tormented by doubt, discouragement and despair."

Roberto Assagioli -- Psychosynthesis

A. Severe disunion prevails but need not be permanent if you seek a totally new connection.

Yi 149: Marathon as Recovery Target

 



Other titles: Work On What Has Been Spoiled, Arresting of Decay, Fixing, Rectifying

Yi 148: how to Quit Drinking and Smoking

 


Changing Lines

Line 3
'Tied retreat. There is affliction, danger.
Nurturing servants and handmaidens, good fortune.'