Yijing Case Study: ䷐ Following and Missing the Point
Sometimes you just see auspicious and stop thinking.
Sharing case studies is one of the best ways in which diviners can improve community, and each other’s skills. I think that sharing failed case studies is even more powerful, as it allows one to see the holes in your own approach, and the approach of others.
The Query
I had just sent off a job application, and asked “How will this job application go?” and received what seemed to be a very positive cast.
Hexagram 17 (䷐ — 隨 Following), line 5 changing, with the resulting change to Hexagram 51 (䷲ — 震 Thunder).
Line 5, as the “prognostication” or key answer (following Zhu Xi’s method), reads as follows:
孚于嘉，吉。
Adler: Honest in excellence, auspicious.
Wilhelm: Sincere in the good, good fortune.
Hexagram 17 ䷐ is generally also very positive. The core hexagram oracle is:
元亨利貞，无咎
Legge: [Sui indicates that (under its conditions)] there will be great progress and success. But it will be advantageous to be firm and correct. There will (then) be no error.
The Interpretation
元亨利貞 is the formula found in the oracle line of Hexagram 1, and 无咎 is simply as Legge states — no error, no mistake. While the meaning of “元亨利貞” can be unpicked infinitely, Legge’s capturing of the four characters as ‘progress’, ‘success’, ‘firmness’, and ‘correctness’ are sufficient.
Line 5 seems also incredibly positive. 孚 honesty, 嘉 excellence, 吉 auspiciousness, great!
I hastily wrote down that this seemed positive, and interpreted this as meaning that the company would be impressed with my CV and cover letter, and (at least) give me an interview.
The Outcome
Oops.
I received a polite rejection email two days after sending in my application.
So what went wrong?
Re-Interpretation
I’ll come to a breakdown of the language of Line 5 shortly (and discuss intention in choosing a translation), but first let’s look at the context of Hexagram 17 ䷐.
Following Zhu Xi, I’m very much of the school that “the answer” is one of the moving lines (or a hexagram statement, depending on how many moving lines), but that it’s always coloured by and contextualised by the overall message of the hexagram. This is contained in the main hexagram oracular statement, but also in the hexagram name, and in the hexagram’s trigram and yin-yang coding.
Hexagram 17 ䷐, Following, has a very positive message, but only in the context where someone is following someone else.
The Image (one of the wings, or traditional commentaries) attached to the hexagram explains Hexagram 17 ䷐ somewhat cryptically as: ‘Thunder in the middle of the lake. The image of Following. The superior man at nightfall goes indoors for rest and recuperation’ (Wilhelm, edited slightly).
The Commentary on the Judgement wing starts with: ‘The firm comes and places itself under the yielding.’ (Wilhelm) — this is thus a rare case in the Yi, where the yin “yielding” line and the yang “firm” line are out of their usual roles, and so the usually-initiatory yang is actually following the usually-following-along yin line.
So, for the auspiciousness of the hexagram to manifest, someone had to be following someone else.
I’m the one sending the job application (initiating a process — a yang act, despite me being “yin” compared to the company). It was me who needed to be following.
Looking at the moving line:
孚于嘉，吉。
The first three characters can be understood more clearly in this context, in a way not fully captured at first glance of the English translations. 孚 is honesty or faithfulness, and while 于 can be “in”, in the sense of in a context or place, it can also mean towards something. 嘉 is that or those which is excellent, so another rendering in English could be:
Faithfulness towards excellence, auspicious.
This tightly matches the meaning of Hexagram 17 ䷐ as Following. I am to be faithful to, to put my trust into, and to follow the excellence of the company. That is what is auspicious — not my application!
Did I do that?
No — my job application was specifically framed around how I was a unique candidate, coming from an unconventional route to this position, and therefore special. I was positioning myself as an admirer of the company, but very much as a passionate, strongly individual outsider. Not a follower.
“Does this mean I have to learn Chinese?”
No, don’t worry.
I’m a firm believer in two things: first, that any knowledge of the Chinese of the Yi will massively improve your understanding of the text and it’s nuance, even if that’s just a short dive into the meanings of 元亨利貞, and checking Wiktionary every so often when there’s a difficult passage.
But, secondly, I hold that one’s available translations and intentions with those translations is how the Yi will channel itself to you, and it will moderate it’s message with the “awareness” (in a very… cosmic sense) of what translations you do or don’t have available. In some ways, I’ve snookered myself by getting further and further into the original Chinese, causing situations like these where ambiguous grammatical language like 于 requires me to come up with alternative translations on the fly!
But if you are sat there with a copy of the Wilhelm translation, read the Wilhelm and apply the wisdom and knowledge it presents to you.
Peace,
⭕