Hexagram 63: Jì Jì (After Completion)

The Judgment

Ji Ji intimates progress and success in small matters. There will be advantage in being firm and correct. There has been good fortune in the beginning; there may be disorder in the end.

既济：亨，小利贞，初吉终乱。

Commentary on the Judgment (Tuan)

'Ji Ji intimates progress and success:' - in small matters, that is, there will be that progress and success. 'There will be advantage in being firm and correct:' - the strong and weak (lines) are correctly arranged, each in its appropriate place. 'There has been good fortune in the beginning: - the weak (second line) is in the centre. 'In the end' there is a cessation (of effort), and 'disorder arises:' - the course (that led to rule and order) is (now) exhausted.

彖曰：既济，亨，小者亨也。利贞，刚柔正而位当也。初吉，柔得中也。终止则乱，其道穷也。

The Great Image

(The trigram representing) fire and that for water above it form Ji Ji. The superior man, in accordance with this, thinks of evil (that may come), and beforehand guards against it.

象曰：水在火上，既济；君子以思患而预防之。

The six lines

1. Line 1 (first): The first NINE, undivided, (shows its subject as a driver) who drags back his wheel, (or as a fox) which has wet his tail. There will be no error.

   'He drags back his wheel:' - as we may rightly judge, there will be no mistake.

   In plain words: Braking the wheels, getting the tail wet: no fault. This hexagram is "after completion", with all six lines in their proper places; the first line is at the bottom and is careful from the start, not rushing ahead, like a young fox wetting its tail. The Small Image says in principle there is no fault.

   初九：曳其轮，濡其尾，无咎。 象曰：曳其轮，义无咎也。

2. Line 2 (second): The second SIX, divided, (shows its subject as) a wife who has lost her (carriage-)screen. There is no occasion to go in pursuit of it. In seven days she will find it.

   'In seven days she will find it:' - for the course pursued is that indicated by the central position (of the line).

   In plain words: The woman loses her carriage screen; do not chase it: in seven days it will be regained. The screen was the curtain a woman drew in her carriage. The second line is central and correct and corresponds to the fifth, but is not used for now; keeping to the middle way, what was lost comes back. The Small Image says this is by the middle way.

   六二：妇丧其茀，勿逐，七日得。 象曰：七日得，以中道也。

3. Line 3 (third): The third NINE, undivided, (suggests the case of) K?o ?ung, who attacked the Demon region, but was three years in subduing it. Small men should not be employed (in such enterprises).

   'He was three years in subduing it:' - enough to make him weary.

   In plain words: The High Ancestor attacks the Devil Country and conquers it after three years; petty people must not be used. The Devil Country was a people to the northwest of the Shang. The third line is strong and correct; long after completion it still fights a great war, winning but exhausted. The Small Image says three years to conquer means weariness.

   九三：高宗伐鬼方，三年克之，小人勿用。 象曰：三年克之，惫也。

4. Line 4 (fourth): The fourth SIX, divided, shows its subject with rags provided against any leak (in his boat), and on his guard all day long.

   'He is on his guard all the day:' - he is in doubt about something.

   In plain words: Fine silk turns to rags: be on guard all day. Some read the rags as those used to plug a leaking boat. The fourth line has entered the danger of the upper trigram: after completion, one must guard against trouble all the more. The Small Image says this is because there is cause for doubt.

   六四：繻有衣袽，终日戒。 象曰：终日戒，有所疑也。

5. Line 5 (fifth): The fifth NINE, undivided, shows its subject (as) the neighbour in the east who slaughters an ox (for his sacrifice); but this is not equal to the (small) spring sacrifice of the neighbour in the west, whose sincerity receives the blessing.

   'The slaughtering of an ox by the neighbour in the east is not equal to (the small sacrifice of) the neighbour in the west:' - because the time (in the latter case is more important and fit). 'His sincerity receives the blessing:' - good fortune comes on a great scale.

   In plain words: The eastern neighbour slaughters an ox, but it is not as good as the western neighbour's simple offering, which truly receives the blessing. Tradition takes the eastern neighbour as the Shang tyrant and the western as King Wen. The fifth line holds the place of honour: after completion, sincerity matters more than show. The Small Image says the eastern neighbour's ox is not as timely as the western neighbour's offering, and truly receiving blessing means great good fortune comes.

   九五：东邻杀牛，不如西邻之禴祭，实受其福。 象曰：东邻杀牛，不如西邻之时也；实受其福，吉大来也。

6. Line 6 (sixth (top)): The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject with (even) his head immersed. The position is perilous.

   'His head is immersed; the position is perilous:' - how could such a state continue long?

   In plain words: Getting one's head wet: danger. The top line is at the end of completion: carried away by success, it falls into danger. The Small Image asks how this could last.

   上六：濡其首，厉。 象曰：濡其首厉，何可久也。

Line positions

Every line stands in its proper place (strong lines in odd places, weak lines in even places), the only hexagram of the 64 where this is so.

The second and fifth lines hold the central places of the lower and upper trigrams; being one strong and one weak, they correspond, and both are also in their proper places.

Of the three pairs of corresponding places (first and fourth, second and fifth, third and top), 3 pairs are made of one strong and one weak line.

Strong lines belong in odd places and weak lines in even places; the second and fifth are the central places; first and fourth, second and fifth, third and top correspond, and they "respond" when one is strong and the other weak.

These are structural conventions, not scores of good or bad fortune. Commentators differ: Wang Bi treats the first and top places as beginning and end without fixed yin or yang positions. Read each line with its Small Image and the whole hexagram.

Place in Jing Fang's eight palaces

Jing Fang grouped the 64 hexagrams into eight "palaces" of eight, each headed by a doubled trigram. Changing the lines of the head hexagram one by one from the bottom gives the next five; the last two are the "wandering soul" and "returning soul" hexagrams. The Kan palace runs: Kǎn (head), Jié (1st change), Zhūn (2nd change), Jì Jì (3rd change), Gé (4th change), Fēng (5th change), Míng Yí (wandering soul), Shī (returning soul).

A recorded case from Takashima

Ji Ji to Ming Yi: a timber bill that went unpaid: In 1868, through an introduction from the Tachibana-ya in Yokohama, Takashima sold several thousand yen of timber to the neighbouring Iwai-ya, which looked prosperous but was not, and did not pay. He cast and got the fifth line of Ji Ji, "the eastern neighbour's ox sacrifice is not as good as the western neighbour's simple offering". Taking Iwai-ya as the eastern neighbour and the introducer Tachibana-ya as the western, he pressed Tachibana-ya, and, since Li means woman, sent women to ask; through Tachibana-ya's wife and daughter he was finally paid.

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English text: James Legge, The Yi King (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16, 1882), public domain, as transcribed by the Chinese Text Project. Chinese: the received text. Offered for study and reflection, not as prediction.

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