line 5
訟元吉.
Disputing. Greatly auspicious.
line 6
或錫之鞶帶.終朝三褫之.
Huo 或: ‘there is’, see H1-4
Xi 錫: ‘to grant, to bestow’ (賜予)
Pan 鞶: a large waistband, belt, or girdle made of leather, used by the gentry. Often decorated with jade ornaments.
Dai 帶: waistband, belt, sash or girdle. James C.H. Hsu says in his The Written Word in Ancient China (Vol I, p. 435-436): Continue reading
During the last meeting of the Dutch Yijing group there was confusion about the assignment of the numbers 2 (yin) and 3 (yang) to the sides of Chinese coins. Old Chinese coins have four Chinese characters on one side and the other side is blank or has two Mongolian characters. When I looked for Chinese sources on this I found that there isn’t much agreement on the designation of the numbers, one of my books says that the side with Chinese characters is yang (see picture), and in this lecture Moxiang Liao 廖墨香 seems to follow the same designation, but there are websites that say otherwise. Curious about the origin of the coin method and wanting to know how the Chinese people in the early times did it I did some digging. Continue reading
不克訟. 復即命渝.安貞: 吉.
不克訟: see line 2.
Fu 復: return
Jiming 即命: follow the royal decrees (遵從王命)
Yu 渝: In its ordinary meaning it means ‘change’, but I could not make this fit the pattern of the sentence and its context. This character also occurs at 16-6 and 17-1, and at these occurrences the MWD text uses yu 諭, ‘to tell, inform, explain, notify, instruct’ (from a superior to an inferior, most notably an imperial decree from the emperor to his subordinates – 舊指上對下的文告或指示。亦特指皇帝的詔令; 漢語大詞典, Vol. 11, p. 345). This fits the context of the line text.
安貞: 吉: see also hexagram 2.
At line two the subject loses the dispute and flees without following the orders of the king, thereby putting a death sentence on the people from his district. At line four he complies and by doing so saves the people from his district.
Cannot win the dispute. Returns with the accepted imperial decree and informs his subordinates.
Divination about peace: auspicious.
食舊德, 貞厲 終吉, 或從王事, 无成.
Shi 食: to ‘eat it’ – to speak about it but not putting it into practice (謂言已出而反吞之，不實行).
Jiude 舊德: the virtues and good deeds of the former kings and ancestors.
食舊德 therefore means to talk about the virtues of the ancestors but not putting them into practice. Without the proper conduct based on the teachings of the ancient ones the divination (zhen 貞) will be dangerous (li 厲). The outcome will be auspicious (ji 吉), but in royal assignments there will be no accomplishments (see also hexagram 2, line 3), as you do not have the full support of the forefathers .
Talking about old virtues but not practising them.
To divine will be dangerous.
In the end auspicious.
There is participation in royal affairs,
But no accomplishments.
不克訟.歸而逋其邑人. 三百戶.無眚.
Buke 不克: unable to win (the fight or battle – 不能戰勝)
Song 訟: dispute, lawsuit, accusation
Gui 歸: return, go back. Also loan for kui 愧, ‘ashamed’
Bu 逋: flee, run away
Yiren 邑人: the people from a fief, feud
Hu 戶: measure word for households
Sheng 眚: Same as sheng 省, cut down, reduce; mitigate (a punishment)
Cannot win the dispute. Returns and flees from the people from his fief. Three-hundred households will not be spared.
