شش خطی 19
نظارت، نزدیک‌شدن، پیشرفت، بزرگی یافتن(Lin)

Overseeing is watching over. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is earth , following, and below is lake , joyful: joyfully following truth, acting in accord with that joy, it is therefore called overseeing.

This hexagram represents watching over the furnace, culling the elixir; it follows on the previous hexagram following. In following, thunder seeks lake, lake returns to thunder; this means that when feeling returns to essence, it can be called restored elixir. Once positive energy has been restored, it becomes increasingly manifest, gradually expanding; at this point you watch over the furnace and get to work, fostering the positive and repressing the negative. Then positive energy grows and negative energy wanes; this is why overseeing has creativity and development. Creativity is the first return of one yang; development is the increase and rise of the second yang. Watching over the furnace and getting to work, one culls these two yangs.

But even though the two yangs are growing, yin energy is still abundant and yang energy is still weak; it is necessary to be careful to ward off danger. Don’t be negligent, but don’t be eager either. Take harmony for substance and accord for function; acting in accord with the time, to take from the other without losing from the self, it is beneficial to be correct. Correct means right; overseeing correctly, before the proper time arrives one does not seek forcibly, and when the time has arrived one does not let it slip by. When process and measure are right, the original creative energy does not leak away, and the mechanism of life does not stop; that practice is creative and developmental, without obstruction.

Otherwise, if one does not know when the medicinal substances are too dense or too feeble, and does not understand when to intensify the work and when to relax it, but starts out impatiently, eager for quick success, then the medicinal substances will not be genuine and the firing process will not be correctly tuned; those who spurt ahead quickly will fall back rapidly. What will happen then is that once the two yangs have grown smoothly they will soon dissipate—the positive energy that has developed will disperse—and overseeing will turn into observing (next hexagram); “in the eighth month there is misfortune.”

If one’s effort is not correct, it will not bear fruit; if it doesn’t bear fruit, what is begun will not develop—one loses what one has gained, and the great affair is gone. Therefore the path of overseeing requires harmonious accord with the time; it is important not to miss in the firing process.

Overseeing means overseeing below from above. Below is lake , above is earth ; there is earth above the lake. Lakes make things wet, earth supports things; widely providing water and support for the many—this is the image of overseeing.

What superior people see in this is that education should be promoted and the life of the people should be stabilized; therefore they educate the people tirelessly, thinking of them and teaching them, guiding them with virtue, equalizing them with etiquette, gradually influencing them.

Education is endless, and thought is also endless; the purpose is to improve the morals and customs of the populace. The ground of ethics gives abundant life, embracing the people without cruelty, protecting and embracing them, minimizing criminal law, making taxes light, seeing to sufficiency of food and clothing, like taking care of an infant, embracing and protecting without bound.

When education and protection are done properly, there is harmony between the leaders and the followers, a unity of will, resulting in an atmosphere of light and peace. This is the way it is when superior people are in positions of authority; but superior people who have no position also teach and protect people in the same way. When superior people instruct others tirelessly, making speeches and writing books, they hope that everyone will become a sage, that every person will attain the Way. This too is teaching and thinking inexhaustibly.

The mind of superior people embraces the whole universe, viewing others and self as equals, accepting every being, loving every being; this too is embracing and protecting without bound. Regardless of whether superior people have positions or not, they all aspire to foster life.