شش خطی 18
اصلاح خرابی، فساد یا زوال (Gu)

Degeneration means deterioration. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is mountain , stopping, and below is wind , penetrating: it represents one yin entering and yang stopping it. Also, wind is inside stopping, representing stopping the yin so that it does not advance upward; it includes the meaning of correcting degeneration.

This hexagram represents abandoning the false and returning to the true; it follows on the preceding hexagram joy. Joy is harmonious action, in accord with the time and in accord with truth, not acting in any way that would be improper, so as to prevent degeneracy of action. When people are first born they are utterly good, with no evil, integrated with natural principle. Originally there is nothing to cultivate, nothing to realize; since there is no defect, there is nothing to correct. But when they get to be sixteen years old, yang peaks, producing yin; by the development of habits they become estranged from what is near by nature. This is like the one yin of wind arising below two yangs; as negative energy advances, the original being degenerates.

However, before the celestial Tao has yin, it cannot be yang; before human affairs have degeneration they cannot be repaired. This is why the path of correction of degeneracy is valuable. The path of correction of degeneracy is like the one yang of mountain stopping on top of two yins, not injured by negative influences. Using this one yang to go back to the root and return to life is the study of working on the fundamental. When the fundamental is established, the path develops. Once you recover your potential, it is like it was always there; this is attaining great development in degeneracy.

Great development is not in degeneration but in correcting degeneration. The way to correct degeneracy is not in empty tranquility without action; it is necessary to work in the midst of great danger and difficulty, to act in the dragon’s pool and the tiger’s lair. Only then can one restore one’s original being, cultivating it into something indestructible. This is why degeneration is developmental, and it is beneficial to cross great rivers. Great rivers are most dangerous and hard to cross; if great rivers are crossed beneficially without injury, then places of little or no danger cannot harm.

However, the benefit of crossing great rivers involves action and process, from which no deviation can be admitted. “Three days before the start, three days after the start” is the secret of the active process. The yin and yang in people is like the waning and waxing of the moon. In the first three nights of the moon’s appearance, the yang light appears in the southwest. This is represented by the trigram thunder . On the night of the fifteenth, the moon appears in the east. This is represented by the trigram heaven . On the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, the light becomes round; this is “three days before the start.” On the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth, the light starts to wane; this is “three days after the start.” When people’s yang energy is pure, this is “three days before the start.” Once their yin energy has arisen, this is “three days after the start.”

“Before the start” is yang, “after the start” is yin. This is the boundary of primordial and temporal yin and yang. People who practice the Tao need to know clearly whether things are degenerate or not. It is all in this boundary of “before the start” and “after the start.” When yang energy is about to become pure, ward off yin to preserve yang; after yin energy has arisen, repel yin to restore yang. If you ward off yin energy before it arises, and repel yin energy after it arises, then the yang energy that has not degenerated can be preserved, and that which has degenerated can be restored. This is the real science of working on the fundamental, getting rid of falsehood and returning to reality. Correctness is unfailingly developmental, development is unfailingly beneficial.

Degeneration is when things fall apart. Above is mountain , below is wind ; this is wind in the mountains. Mountains can nurture beings, wind can stir beings; stirring up and nurturing is the image of repairing degeneration.

What superior people see in this is that the vital spirit in humans is like the people, and the natural reality in humans is virtue; when there is degeneration in the natural reality, it is due to not knowing how to rouse the vital spirit to cultivate and nurture it. Therefore they rouse the "people" of the vital spirit, and nurture the "virtue" of natural reality.

Rousing the people must be like the wind gradually rising from below, ascending from lowliness to the heights. Nurturing virtue must be like the stability of a mountain as it nurtures beings, nurturing with richness and warmth. When one is able to nurture, the vital spirit becomes more and more active; when one is able to rouse, natural reality attains development. By rousing and nurturing, that which has not yet degenerated can be preserved, and that which has degenerated can be repaired. By gradual penetration, getting stronger with perseverance, one will eventually advance to the stage of ultimate good without evil, where there can be no degeneration.