Dwelling, One Observes the Images; Acting, One Observes the Changes -- Reading the Chapter "The Sage Established the Hexagrams and Observed the Images" from the Upper Xici
A line-by-line reading of the second chapter of the Upper Xici. The sage's four acts -- establishing the hexagrams, observing the images, appending the statements, clarifying fortune and misfortune -- run in exact reverse order to the noble person's four acts -- observing the images, savoring the statements, observing the changes, savoring the divination. The four clauses "is the image of..." form a chain tracing effect back to cause; "the repose in which he dwells" echoes the Doctrine of the Mean's "dwelling in ease, awaiting the Mandate"; and the chapter closes by quoting the top line of hexagram Da You, "From Heaven comes its aid," gathering the whole into the two words compliance and good faith. Grounded in Confucian and Daoist thought, and drawing on the Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and the Zuo Tradition, it explores how the noble person finds repose between Heaven and Earth and acts amid change.
5 "That in Which the Noble Person Dwells and Rests Secure Is the Order of the Changes"
5.1 What Is Order$12
5.1.1 "Low and High Are Set Out; Noble and Humble Take Their Positions"
"Therefore the repose in which the noble person dwells is the order of the Changes." The word "order" is the key to this clause. What does "the order of the Changes" refer to$13
The opening of the first chapter of the Upper Xici says: "Heaven is exalted, Earth is lowly; thus Qian and Kun are fixed. The low and the high are set out; thus the noble and the humble take their positions. Movement and stillness have their constancy; thus the firm and the yielding are determined." Heaven above, Earth below -- this is the order of the exalted and the lowly. The low and the high are set out in their array, and the noble and the humble thereby have their positions. Movement and stillness each follow their own constant pattern, and the firm and the yielding thereby become distinct. These lines speak precisely of order: Heaven and Earth have their order, the exalted and the lowly have their order, movement and stillness have their order, the firm and the yielding have their order. The Changes is the book that displays this order.
So "the order of the Changes" refers neither to the sequence in which the sixty-four hexagrams are arranged, nor solely to the progression of the six lines from bottom to top, but to that inherent order of Heaven and Earth which the Changes displays. Heaven and Earth have their exalted and lowly ranks; the myriad things have their noble and humble ranks; movement and stillness follow constant patterns; the firm and the yielding have their proper bounds. This order belongs to Heaven and Earth themselves; it is not fixed by human beings. The Changes merely displays it. What the noble person dwells in and rests secure within is precisely this order.
5.1.2 Order Is Both Position and Time
As noted earlier, within the six lines, position is time. Order likewise carries both aspects, position and time, at once. In terms of position, order is the sequence of exalted and lowly, noble and humble: the ruler occupies the ruler's position, the minister the minister's position, the father the father's position, the son the son's position. In terms of time, order is the sequence of earlier and later, beginning and end: what should come first comes first, what should come after comes after, what should begin begins, what should end ends. To rest secure in order is at once to rest secure in one's own position and to rest secure in one's own time.
The Master said, "Not being in a particular position, one does not discuss its governance." This is resting secure in position. The Master also said, "As for the noble person's dealings with the world, he has no fixed preferences and no fixed aversions; he simply follows what is right." This is resting secure in time, taking rightness as the standard at every moment. Resting secure in position and resting secure in time, taken together, constitute resting secure in order.
The Lower Xici says: "As a book, the Changes takes tracing from the beginning to the end as its substance. The intermingling of the six lines is a matter solely of their time and their matter." Tracing from the beginning to the end means investigating from origin all the way to conclusion. The intermingling of the six lines is to be judged solely by their time and their matter. Here the two words "time and matter" are precisely the two aspects of order: time is temporal order, matter is positional order. What the noble person rests secure in, dwelling in repose, is precisely this time and this matter.
5.2 "Dwelling in Ease, Awaiting the Mandate"
5.2.1 An Intertextual Echo with a Line from the Doctrine of the Mean
Here we come to the exploration this essay is most eager to put forward. The Doctrine of the Mean says: "Thus the noble person dwells in ease and awaits the Mandate; the petty person walks in peril and hopes for a stroke of luck." The noble person dwells in ease and awaits the Mandate; the petty person walks in peril and seeks a fortunate windfall. The phrase "dwells in ease" (ju yi) has traditionally been glossed as dwelling in a place of ease and levelness. This reading is, of course, perfectly coherent. But if one reads it alongside this chapter's "the repose in which the noble person dwells is the order of the Changes," a striking correspondence emerges.
This chapter says that what the noble person "dwells in and rests secure within" is "the order of the Changes." The Doctrine of the Mean says the noble person "dwells in ease (yi), awaiting the Mandate." One passage says what is dwelt in is the order of the Changes; the other says what is dwelt in is yi. Both use the word "dwell," and both connect to the character yi, which is shared by "ease" and by the very name of the Changes (Yi). If we read the Doctrine of the Mean's "dwells in yi" as "dwells in the order of the Changes," then "dwells in yi and awaits the Mandate" means: to dwell securely within the order of Heaven and Earth that the Changes displays, and to await the coming of the Mandate. Read this way, it aligns perfectly with the meaning of this chapter.
Even without altering the traditional reading of "dwells in ease" as dwelling in a place of ease and levelness, the two passages remain intertextual echoes of one another. Why dwell in a place of ease and levelness$1 Because a place of ease and levelness is precisely a place that accords with order. The order of Heaven and Earth is, at bottom, easy and level; the exalted and the lowly, the noble and the humble, each resting secure in their proper position -- there is, at bottom, no peril in this at all. Where, then, does peril come from$2 It comes from failing to rest secure in one's order and instead seeking recklessly. So to dwell in ease is to dwell in order, and to dwell in order is to dwell in ease. The Doctrine of the Mean and the Xici -- one speaking from the standpoint of the mind, the other from the standpoint of order -- speak of one and the same thing.
The passage that precedes this line in the Doctrine of the Mean reads: "The noble person acts according to his present station and does not desire what lies beyond it. If his station is wealth and honor, he acts in accordance with wealth and honor; if his station is poverty and low estate, he acts in accordance with poverty and low estate; if his station is among barbarian peoples, he acts in accordance with dwelling among barbarian peoples; if his station is trouble and hardship, he acts in accordance with trouble and hardship. The noble person, wherever he finds himself, finds nothing that does not suit him. In a superior position he does not oppress those below; in an inferior position he does not curry favor with those above. He corrects himself and seeks nothing of others, and so has no resentment: he neither resents Heaven above nor blames other people below." To act according to one's present station is to rest secure in one's own position. To find, wherever one is, nothing that does not suit oneself, is to be at repose. Not to oppress those below when in a superior position, and not to curry favor with those above when in an inferior position, is not to stray from one's order. This whole passage can be read as an unfolding of this chapter's "the repose in which the noble person dwells is the order of the Changes."
5.2.2 "Walking in Peril and Hoping for a Stroke of Luck" and "The Changes Cannot Be Used to Divine About Peril"
The opposite of "dwelling in ease and awaiting the Mandate" is "walking in peril and hoping for a stroke of luck." To walk in peril is to fail to rest secure in one's order and to venture into risk instead; to hope for a stroke of luck is to seek gain outside of order. This line can be read alongside a passage from the Zuo Tradition. In the twelfth year of Duke Zhao, the Zuo Tradition records, Nan Kuai was about to rebel and cast the milfoil stalks, obtaining hexagram Kun (Earth) changing into hexagram Bi (Union). The line statement read, "a yellow lower garment, sublime good fortune," and he took this to mean great fortune. Zifu Huibo said to him: "I have studied this before. Where the matter is one of loyalty and good faith, it may hold; otherwise it will surely fail." He also said: "Moreover, the Changes cannot be used to divine about peril -- what affair, then, could this concern$3"
The Changes cannot be used to divine about peril. To "divine about peril" is to use the Changes to seek fortune for a reckless undertaking. Zifu Huibo's meaning is that what the Changes displays is the order of Heaven and Earth, and within that order there is no peril. If what one intends to do is walk in peril, the Changes will not, on one's behalf, declare it fortunate. Even if a line statement says "fortune," that fortune is not meant for one who walks in peril. This stands in exact opposition to the Doctrine of the Mean's "the petty person walks in peril and hopes for a stroke of luck." The petty person who walks in peril seeking a stroke of luck, even should he divine a fortunate hexagram, has attained only a lucky windfall, not true fortune.
From this we can see that the clause "that in which the noble person dwells and rests secure is the order of the Changes" has a definite counterpart against which it is set. Resting secure in order stands opposed to walking in peril. Dwelling in ease stands opposed to walking in peril. The reason the noble person can attain "from Heaven comes its aid -- fortune, and nothing but advantage" is that he does not walk in peril. This point will be taken up again in Chapter 9.
5.3 Repose Is Not Submission
5.3.1 "Acting According to One's Present Station"
When speaking of resting secure in order, it is easy to fall into a certain misunderstanding: that resting secure in order means resigning oneself to fate, submitting to one's present circumstances, and doing nothing at all. This is neither the meaning of the Changes nor the meaning of the Doctrine of the Mean.
When the Doctrine of the Mean says "acts according to his present station," the emphasis falls on "acts." Acting according to one's station is repose; acting is motion. One rests secure in one's own position, and then acts within that position. Resting secure in one's position does not mean remaining motionless; it means acting only after resting secure in one's position. The one who is wealthy and honored acts within wealth and honor; the one who is poor and lowly acts within poverty and low estate; the one beset by trouble and hardship acts within trouble and hardship. The acting is the same in each case; only the position from which it is done differs. This is precisely the structure of this chapter's "dwelling, he observes the images and savors their statements; acting, he observes the changes and savors the divination": dwelling is resting secure in one's position, acting is carrying out one's position.
Resting secure in order carries a still more positive meaning. Order belongs to Heaven and Earth, not to the present state of affairs. If the present state of affairs does not accord with order, then resting secure in order requires changing that present state of affairs. Heaven exalted, Earth lowly; the ruler being truly a ruler, the minister truly a minister, the father truly a father, the son truly a son -- this is order. If the ruler is not truly a ruler, or the minister not truly a minister, this is a loss of order. One who rests secure in order cannot rest content with such a loss of order. What the Master did throughout his life was precisely to hold fast to order in an age that had lost it. He was not content with the present state of affairs, yet he rested secure in order. The two are not in contradiction.
5.3.2 "When It Is Time to Stop, Stop; When It Is Time to Move, Move"
The Tuan commentary on hexagram Gen says: "Gen means stopping. When it is time to stop, stop; when it is time to move, move. When movement and stillness never lose their proper moment, the Way is bright and clear. To restrain by stopping is to stop in one's proper place." Gen means stopping, but this stopping is not a dead, static stopping; it is stopping when it is time to stop, and moving when it is time to move. One stops when stopping is called for, and moves when moving is called for. Neither movement nor stillness ever loses its proper moment. This is the true likeness of resting secure in order.
To rest secure in order is not to remain forever motionless; it is to move or stay still according to the moment. Order carries time within it: when the moment for movement arrives, one must move; when the moment for stopping arrives, one must stop. "To restrain by stopping is to stop in one's proper place" -- to stop where one ought to stop. "Place" is position, and to stop in one's proper place is to rest secure in one's position. But this position itself changes with time, and so stopping in one's proper place must likewise follow the moment.
If this chapter's "the repose in which the noble person dwells is the order of the Changes" is read together with the Tuan commentary on Gen, one sees that "dwelling in repose" is not a fixed posture, but a repose that follows the moment. Dwelling is stopping, yet it is only stopping in one's proper place; when the moment for acting arrives, one must move, must "observe the changes and savor the divination." Both dwelling and acting take place within order.
5.3.3 "Delighting in Heaven and Knowing the Mandate, and So Free of Care"
The fourth chapter of the Upper Xici says: "Delighting in Heaven and knowing the Mandate, and so being free of care; resting secure in one's ground and being generous in benevolence, and so being able to love." Delighting in Heaven and knowing the Mandate, one is thereby free of care. This line offers the finest gloss on "dwelling in repose." Repose comes from delighting in Heaven and knowing the Mandate. Heaven is the source of order; the Mandate is order taking concrete form within the individual. To delight in Heaven is to love this order; to know the Mandate is to understand one's own position within this order. One who delights in Heaven and knows the Mandate dwells within order and rests secure, with nothing to be anxious about.
This "free of care" may seem to contradict the "anxious care" discussed earlier, but it does not. Anxious care is vigilance over minor flaws; being free of care is settledness regarding the larger picture. A person can be settled in the larger picture while remaining vigilant over small particulars. The Master's "delighting in it so as to forget his cares," together with his saying, "what is not good I am unable to change -- this is my care," is precisely this. In the large view, delighting in Heaven and knowing the Mandate; in small particulars, holding fast to caution from beginning to end. Only the two together make up the complete mind of the noble person.
"Resting secure in one's ground and being generous in benevolence, and so being able to love" -- resting secure in one's ground means resting secure in the place one occupies, which is resting secure in one's position. Only one who rests secure in his position can be generous and substantial in benevolence, can love other people. One who does not rest secure in his position has his mind bent entirely on seeking outward -- what energy could he have left over for love$4 This line joins "repose" and "benevolence" together, showing that resting secure in order is no passive endurance, but the very foundation of benevolent virtue. Only once the noble person dwells and rests secure can he go on to practice benevolence within his position. This is the positive significance of repose.