Hsiao Ch'u / The Taming Power of the Small
above: Sun The Gentle, Wind
below: Ch'ien The Creative, Heaven
Hsiao Khu indicates that (under its conditions) there will be
progress and success. (We see) dense clouds, but no rain
coming from our borders in the west.
Overall Meaning
Minor restraint, the symbol of taming force
The name Hsiao Khu is interpreted as meaning 'small restraint'. The idea
of 'restraint' having once been determined on as that to be conveyed by the
figure, it is easily made out that the restraint must be small, for its
representative is the divided line in the fourth place; and the check given
by that to all the undivided lines cannot be great. Even if we suppose, as
many critics do, that all the virtue of that upper trigram Sun is
concentrated in its first line, the attribute ascribed to Sun is that of
docile flexibility, which cannot long be successful against the strength
emblemed by the lower trigram Khien. The restraint therefore is small, and
in the end there will be 'progress and success'.
The second sentence of the Thwan contains indications of the place, time,
and personality of the writer which it seems possible to ascertain. The fief
of Kau was in the western portion of the kingdom of Yin or Shang, the China
of the 12th Century B.C., the era of King Wan. Rain coming and moistening
the ground is the cause of the beauty and luxuriance of the vegetable world,
and the emblem of the blessings flowing from good training and good
government. Here therefore in the west, the hereditary territory of the
house of Kau, are blessings which might enrich the whole kingdom; but they
are somehow restrained. The dense clouds do not empty their stores.
P. Regis says: 'To declare openly that no rain fell from the heavens long
covered with dense clouds over the great tract of country, which stretched
from the western border to the court and on to the eastern sea, was nothing
else leaving it to all thoughtful minds to draw the conclusion that the
family of Wan was as worthy of the supreme seat as that of Shau, the tyrant,
however ancient, was unworthy of it.' The intimation is not put in the Text,
however, so clearly as by P. Regis.