Chi Chi / After Completion

above: K'an The Abysmal, Water
below: Li The Clinging, Flame

The third [nine], undivided, (suggests the case of) Kao Chung who attacked the Demon region, but was three years in subduing it. Small men should not be employed in such enterprises.

The strong line 3, at the top of the lower trigram, suggests for its subject one undertaking a vigorous enterprise. The writer thinks of Kao Chung, the sacrificial title of Wu Ting, one of the ablest sovereigns of the Shang dynasty (B.C. 1364-1324), who undertook an expedition against the barbarous hordes of the cold and bleak regions north of the Middle States. He is mentioned again under the next hexagram. He also appears in the Shuh, IV,ix, and in the Shih, IV,iii,ode 5. His enterprise may have been good, and successful, but it was tedious, and the paragraph concludes with a caution.