Hexagram 25 · 無妄 · wú wàng
Hexagram 25. Wú Wàng · Innocence
☰☳ Heaven over thunder: Qián above, Zhèn below.
Wft Wang indicates great progress and success, while there will be advantage in being firm and
Wft Wang indicates great progress and success, while there will be advantage in being firm and
Act in accord with the nature of things, without ulterior motive or cunning calculation. Spontaneity here is strength: what is done directly and cleanly succeeds. Every stratagem, every hedge 'just in case', now turns against its deviser.
The Image
Thunder moves beneath heaven like a spring storm: nature acts without ulterior motive. Your strength now is directness: do the plainly right thing, without clever schemes or hedging intrigues. In this field every trick is punished instantly, while accidental misfortune (it may come) passes without trace if you do not answer it with fuss.
Interpretation of hexagram 25
XXV. The Wfi Wang Hexagram. it; here we have one strong line, and five weak lines above it. To illustrate the subject from what we see in nature,—Po is the hexa¬ gram of the ninth month, in which the triumph of cold and decay in the year is nearly complete. It is complete in the tenth
The lines of hexagram 25
First line
The first line, undivided, shows its subject free from all insincerity. His advance will be accom¬ panied with good fortune.
month, whose hexagram is Khwan =E ==; then follows our hex¬ agram Fft, belonging to the eleventh month, in which was the winter solstice when the sun turned back in his course, and moved with a constant regular progress towards the summer solstice. In harmony with these changes of nature are the changes in the political and social state of a nation. There is nothing in the Yi to suggest the hope of a perfect society or kingdom that cannot be moved.
Second line
The second line, divided, shows one who reaps without having ploughed (that he might reap), and gathers the produce of his third year’s fields without having cultivated them the first year for that end. To such a one there will be advantage in whatever direction he may move.
The strong bottom line is the first of X'a.n, the trigram of move¬ ment, and the upper trigram is Khwan, denoting docility and capa¬ city. The strong returning line will meet with no distressing obstacle, and the weak lines will change before it into strong, and be as friends. The bright quality will be developed brighter and brighter from day to day, and month to month.
Third line
The third line, divided, shows calamity hap¬ pening to one who is free from insincerity;—as in
The sentence, ‘ In seven days comes his return,’ occasions some perplexity. If the reader will refer to hexagrams 44, 33, 12, 20, 23, and 2, he will see that during the months denoted by those figures, the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, the yin lines have gradually been prevailing over the yang, until in Khwan (2) they have extruded them entirely from the lineal figure. Then comes our FOt, as a seventh figure, in which the yang line begins to reassert itself, and from which it goes on to extrude the yin lines in their turn. Explained therefore of the months of the year, we have to take a day for a month. And something analogous—we cannot say exactly what—must have place in society and the state.
Fourth line
The fourth line, undivided, shows (a case) in which, if its subject can remain firm and correct, there will be no error.
correct. If (its subject and his action) be not correct, he will fall into errors, and it will not be advantageous for him to move in any direction.
Fifth line
The fifth line, undivided, shows one who is free from insincerity, and yet has fallen ill. Let him not use medicine, and he will have occasion for joy (in his recovery).
The concluding auspice or oracle to him who finds this Ffi by divination is what we might expect.
Top line
The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject free from insincerity, yet sure to fall into error, if he take action. (His action) will not be advan¬ tageous in any way.
The subject of line x is of course the undivided line, meaning here, says -A'Mng-^ze, ‘ the way of the superior man.’ There must have been some deviation from that, or ‘returning’ could not be spoken of.
Did hexagram 25 come up in your reading? The oracle itself gives the full reading, with changing lines and the second hexagram.
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