Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Innocence
Hexagram 25 of the Yi Jing · 无妄 Wú Wàng
The figure
Heaven above Thunder: the creative force moved by a spontaneous impulse, movement attuned to heaven. The image of innocence, of rightful naturalness.
What this figure illuminates
Innocence lights up the rightness of one who acts without calculation, in accord with their nature. But innocence is not naivety: it is the spontaneity of an upright heart, not the absence of attention.
For a decision, the figure invites you to find the simple, true gesture: “am I acting from what I am, or from a calculation that pulls me away from the natural?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
Innocence: great success comes to what is upright. But stray from what is correct, and misfortune follows — nothing then furthers.
The Image
Thunder rolls beneath the sky; to each thing its own true nature is given, free of pretense. Seeing this, the wise nurture all beings in step with the seasons.
The Six Lines
- First line
Acting from a pure, unfeigned heart. To go forward so brings good fortune.
- Second line
Work without scheming after the harvest, till without counting the yield. Do the right thing for itself, and the way opens.
- Third line
Undeserved misfortune — the tethered ox one stranger leads off is another's loss. Some blows fall through no fault of yours.
- Fourth line
Hold to what is genuinely yours and stay correct, and there is no error.
- Fifth line
An affliction that comes through no fault of yours. Do not reach for a cure that is not needed — let it pass, and joy returns.
- Sixth line
Even the innocent should not move now. To act at this point, however pure, leads into error.
Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).
A question to keep
Are you acting from what you are, or from a calculation?
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