شش خطی 33
خلوت‌گزیدن، عقب‌نشستن، کناره‌گرفتن (Dun)

Withdrawal means retracting. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is heaven , strong and below is mountain , still: Strength is based on stillness; using strength with restraint, one has strength yet does not lightly use it arbitrarily. Therefore it is called withdrawal.

This hexagram represents storing yang and subduing energy; it follows on the previous hexagram sensitivity. Sensitivity is the path of producing joy by stillness, harmonizing yin and yang; to harmonize yin and yang, the most important thing is to first subdue energy. Subduing energy means to still strength and not presume upon it.

The quality of strength in people is connected to the primordial true energy; after one yin comes and mates with it, yin energy gradually grows, and yang energy of course recedes. The developed person at this point knows the yin energy is active as a natural process, and can hardly be fought, and so does not set about repelling yin but first aims to preserve yang. Preserving yang means gathering in the vital spirit and stabilizing it in its place, whereby to subdue the primal energy. If you can subdue that energy, the yang energy is not injured, and the yin energy spontaneously sublimates. Thus there is a path of development within withdrawal.

But withdrawal as a path does not mean avoiding yin, nor does it mean sitting there watching the way things turn out; it means using yin to complete yang. In using yin to complete yang, it is most important for withdrawal to be prompt; if prompt, the yang energy is strong and the yin energy is weak, so withdrawal is easy. If tardy, the yang energy is weak and the yin energy is strong, so withdrawal is difficult.

In this hexagram there are two yins and four yangs: The yin energy is still submitting to the yang energy. Withdrawing at this point, withdrawal is preemptive; thus the developmental path of withdrawal exists when the small (yin) is beneficial and correct. The small being beneficial and correct is when the yin energy has not gotten to the point of injuring the yang energy. When the third yin arises, yin energy is not beneficial and not correct; it gets out of control and beyond withdrawal. Therefore the developmental path of stilling strength and subduing energy must take place just when the second yin has come forth. Then neither yin nor yang is injured, and yin follows the withdrawal of yang; the benefit and correctness of the small is also the benefit and correctness of the great.

Inaccessibility means no one can know you. Above is heaven , below is mountain ; there are mountains under the sky. The sky can contain the mountains, but the mountains cannot get near the sky; this is the image of inaccessibility.

What superior people see in this is that when people bring trouble on themselves, being injured by petty people, it is because of being narrow and intolerant. Therefore superior people keep petty people at a distance, being stern yet without ill will. To keep petty people at a distance does not mean to avoid them but rather to cause petty people to keep their distance. Not having ill will means to deal with people tolerantly and generously, while being stern means to control oneself firmly.

Superior people who practice the Tao have minds as vast as the sky, embracing all existence, yet aloof of it all. Tolerant of everyone, they live in the world without destroying it, they are in the midst of the mundane yet can transcend the mundane. They are not disliked by lesser people, yet as their self-discipline and conduct are beyond the ordinary, and because they are conscientious, lesser people avoid them even though they themselves do not try to avoid lesser people.

This is like mountains under heaven; no matter how high the mountains are, they cannot get close to heaven. Nothing under heaven is as high or large as mountains are, yet heaven can contain even that which is as high or as large as mountains—how much the more so that which is not so high or large. Only when practitioners of the Tao have the capacity to contain mountains, as it were, can they sustain the heavenly practice and cultivate the heavenly Tao. Being inaccessible without hiding, they are near to invulnerability.

False followers of Taoism in the world who are small-minded and intolerant and get irritated and angry at every encounter and confrontation are naturally disliked and avoided by petty people, but they are never free of obstacles.