Shih / The Army
above: K'un The Receptive, Earth
below: K'an The Abysmal, Water
Six in the third place means:
Perchance the army carries corpses in the wagon.
Misfortune.
Here we have a choice of two explanations. One points to defeat because
someone other than the chosen leader interferes with the command; the
other is similar in its general meaning, but the expression, "carries
corpses in the wagon," is interpreted differently. At burials and at
sacrifices to the dead it was customary in China for the deceased to
whom the sacrifice was made to be represented by a boy of the family,
who sat in the dead man's place and was honored as his representative.
On the basis of this custom the text is interpreted as meaning that a
"corpse boy" is sitting in the wagon, or, in other words, that
authority is not being exercised by the proper leaders but has been
usurped by others. Perhaps the whole difficulty clears up if it is
inferred that there has been an error in copying. The character fan,
meaning "all," may have been misread as shih, which means
"corpse." Allowing for this error, the meaning would be that if the
multitude assumes leadership of the army (rides in the wagon),
misfortune will ensue.