Shih Ho / Biting Through

above:Li The Clinging, Flame
below:Ch^ en The Arousing, Thunder

The first [nine], undivided, shows one with his feet in the stocks and deprived of his toes. There will be no error.

Lines 1 and 6 are much out of the game or action described in the figure. Hence they are held to represent parties receiving punishment, while the other lines represent parties inflicting it. The punishment in line 1 is that of the stocks, administered for a small offence, and before crime has made much way. But if the 'depriving' of the toes is not merely keeping them in restraint, but cutting them off, as the Chinese character suggests, the punishment appears to a western reader too severe.