Chung Fu / Inner Truth

above: Sun The Gentle, Wind
below: Tui The Joyous, Lake

Kung Fu (moves even) pigs and fish and leads to good fortune. There will be advantage is crossing the great stream. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.

Overall Meaning

Central sincerity, the symbol of truth

Kung Fu, the name of this hexagram, may be represented in English by 'Inmost sincerity'. It denotes the highest quality of man, and gives its possessor power so that he prevails with spiritual beings, with other men, and with the lower creatures. It is the subject of the 'Doctrine of the Mean' from the 21st chapter onwards, where Remusat rendered it by 'perfection', 'moral perfection', and Intorcetta and his coadjutors by 'true perfect integrity'. The lineal figure has suggested to the Chinese commentators from the author of the first Appendix, two ideas in it which deserve to be pointed out. There are two divided lines in the center and two undivided below them and above them. The divided lines in the center are held to represent the heart or mind free from all preoccupation, without any consciousness of self; and the undivided lines, on each side of it, in the center of the constituent trigrams are held to denote the solidity of the virtue of one so free from selfishness. There is no unreality in it, not a single flaw.

The 'Daily Lecture' at the conclusion of its paraphrase of the Thwan refers to the history of the ancient Shun, and the wonderful achievements of his virtue. The authors give no instance of the affecting of 'pigs and fishes' by sincerity, and say that these names are symbolic of men, the rudest and most unsusceptible of being acted on. The Text says that the man thus gifted with sincerity will succeed in the most difficult enterprises. Remarkable is the concluding sentence that he must be firm and correct. Here, as elsewhere through the Yi, there comes out the practical character which has distinguished the Chinese people and their best teaching all along the line of history.