شش خطی 22
آراستگی (Bi)

NOTES
1. Lou Yulie draws our attention to the fact that when Top Yin and Second Yang of Tai (Peace), Hexagram 11, trade places, the hexagram becomes Bi (Elegance). This appears to be what Wang Bi had in mind here. See Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 1: 329 n. 2.
2. This and all subsequent text set off in this manner is commentary by Wang Bi. Some commentators think that, instead of xiaoli you youwang (it is fitting only for small matters should one set out to do something), the texts of the Judgment and the Commentary on the Judgments of Bi should read buli you youwang (it is not fitting should one set out to do something), since the graphs for xiao (small, small matters) and bu (negative prefix) can be easily confused. The Tang era scholar and author of the Zhouyi juzheng (Evidence for correct readings in the Changes of the Zhou), Guo Jing, for instance, uses this argument and adds:
Second Yang discards the Dao of harmony embodied in the Mean and moves instead to a place of no proper position fraught with the utmost arrogance. This is why the subcommentary [of Kong Yingda] says: “Second Yang casts goodness aside and pursues evil.” The casting aside of goodness and pursuit of evil is never something that one should want to do, and, since this involves great evil, how could it simply be a matter of “it is fitting only for small matters”? So it is perfectly obvious that a textual error is involved.
See Kong, Zhouyi zhengyi, 3: 14a, and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 1: 329 n. 4.
3. This passage seems to refer to the lower trigram, Li (Cohesion), which also signifies the sun, the most significant of the heavenly bodies that make up the pattern of Heaven. Li results when the middle line of the Qian (Heaven) trigram changes from yang to yin.
4. “Curbs are set” translates zhi (stop, make halt), an obvious reference to Gen (Restraint), the upper trigram. What distinguishes human culture is its capacity to cast light on the necessity of curbing individual behavior for the sake of the common good.
5. Li (Cohesion), the lower trigram, signifies fire as well as the sun, and Gen (Restraint), the upper trigram signifies “Mountain.”
6. Kong Yingda comments: “ ‘Cheek whiskers’ refer to the whiskers that cling to the face above. Second Yin always attaches itself above to Third Yang.” See Zhouyi zhengyi, 3: 15a.
7. Lou Yulie glosses hanru as “not budging.” This interpretation follows the gloss of han as gan (tree trunk[like], i.e., still, patient, stubborn, unmovable, etc.) by the Han commentator Zheng Xuan (127–200) (see Lu, Jingdian shiwen, 2: 78) and Jiao Xun’s (1763–1820) Zhouyi bushu (Supplements to the commentaries and subcommentaries to the Changes of the Zhou), in which this remark on Wang Bi’s commentary occurs: “Surely one should read han as gan. The Guangya [The Erya (Elegant and correct writings in familiar terms), expanded] [by Zhang Yi (fl. 227–232)] glosses gan as an [still, content, secure, etc.]. Although Fourth Yin has made its horse spotless, it continues to stay still and does not make a move, and this is why Wang Bi says ‘not budging, so waits there.’ ” See Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 1: 330 n. 15. Kong Yingda’s own subcommentary on Wang’s passage suggests that hanru refers to the fresh and spotless appearance of the horse; see Zhouyi zhengyi, 3:15b. However, both Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi interpret hanru a third way, as a description of how the heart or will of Fourth Yin is so fixed on First Yang that it would “fly there” (hanru), a gloss that reads han as han in the sense of its other basic meaning, “feather” or “to feather,” that is, “to soar or fly.” This again seems forced and unlikely.
8. “Increase to great number” translates jianjian, which follows Kong Yingda’s gloss of it as zhongduo (numerous, abundant). Kong interprets Fifth Yin and Wang’s commentary to mean that if one runs a simple, honest government, one shall reap wealth and prosperity (i.e., much silk), but if one indulges in extravagant trappings, this will ruin the substance of government, and all will fail. See Zhouyi zhengyi, 3: 15b–16a. My translation of Fifth Yin tries to comply with these remarks. However, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi suggest interpretations that differ from this and from each other. Cheng thinks that jianjian refers to the cutting and tailoring of silk material: as a tailor cuts and tailors it, so the hard and strong Top Yang line controls and guides the soft and weak ruler, Fifth Yin. Top Yang, in fact, being both “up high” and “near by” is represented by the “hill” and “the garden,” respectively, and Fifth Yin is thus “made elegant” (adorned) by Top Yang. Cheng’s interpretation suggests the following translation: “Here one takes Elegance from the hill and garden and, as if a bundle of silk, is cut and tailored. If one is sparing of this, in the end, there will be good fortune.” Zhu Xi’s interpretation is succinct enough to translate in its entirety:
Fifth Yin as a weak but central line is the ruler of the Bi [Elegance] hexagram. It is by deriving honest simplicity from what is essential and by holding substance in high esteem that one perfectly realizes the Dao of Elegance. Thus there is the image of the hillside garden. However, the nature of the yin personality is such that it is miserly, and this is why there is the image of a poor, meager [jianjian] bundle of silk. A bundle of silk is a poor, inadequate thing. Jianjian has the meaning of “poor and meager” [qianxiao]. Although it is shameful for a person to be miserly, when it comes to decorum, restraint is preferred to extravagance, and this is how in the end one obtains good fortune here.
Zhu’s interpretation suggests: “Here one derives Elegance from the hillside garden, poor and meager as a bundle of silk. But spare use [of Elegance] will lead to good fortune in the end.” See Zhouyi zhezhong, 3: 41a–41b.