#18, line 3, #23
The Superior Person sweeps away corruption and stagnation by stirring up the people and strengthening their spirit. Supreme success.
Before crossing to the far shore, consider the move for three days.
After crossing, devote three days of hard labor to damage control. You are blessed with an opportunity to resuscitate that which others have abandoned as beyond repair. This ruin wasn’t caused by evil intention, but by indifference to decay.
Just by addressing yourself to the problem, you exhibit a new awareness, a fresh perspective. This is a time of recovery, renewal, regeneration.
This describes a man who proceeds a little too energetically in righting the mistakes of the past. Now and then, as a result, minor discords and annoyances will surely develop. But too much energy is better than too little. Therefore, although he may at times have some slight cause for regret, he remains free of any serious blame.
This pictures a time when inferior people are pushing forward and are about to crowd out the few remaining strong and superior men. Under these circumstances, which are due to the time, it is not favorable for the superior man to undertake anything.
The right behavior in such adverse times is to be deduced from the images and their attributes. The lower trigram stands for the earth, whose attributes are docility and devotion. The upper trigram stands for the mountain, whose attribute is stillness. This suggests that one should submit to the bad time and remain quiet. For it is a question not of man’s doing but of time conditions, which, according to the laws of heaven, show an alternation of increase and decrease, fullness and emptiness. It is impossible to counteract these conditions of the time. Hence it is not cowardice but wisdom to submit and avoid action.
