Pi / Holding Together [Union]
above: K'an The Abysmal, Water
below: K'un The Receptive, Earth
Pi indicates that (under the conditions which it presupposes)
there is good fortune. But let (the principal party intended
on it) reexamine himself, (as if) by divination, whether his
virtue be great, unintermitting and firm. If it be so, there
will be no error. Those who have not rest will then come to
him, and with those who are (too) late in coming it will be ill.
Overall Meaning
Union, concord, the symbol of collaboration
The idea of union between the different members and classes of a state, and how it can be secured, is the subject of hexagram Pi. The whole line occupying the fifth place, or that of authority, in the hexagram, represents the ruler to whom the subjects of all the other lines offer a ready submission. According to the general rules for the symbolism of the lines, the second line is the correlate of the fifth; but all the other lines are here made subject to that fifth; - which is also a law of the Yi, according to the 'Daily Lecture'. To me it has the suspicious look of being made for the occasion. The harmony of union, therefore, is to be secured by the sovereign authority of on; but he is warned to see to it that his virtue be what will beseem his place, and subjects are warned not to delay to submit to him.