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.