Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Limitation
Hexagram 60 of the Yi Jing · 节 Jié
The figure
Water above the Lake: the lake whose capacity limits the water, the measure that holds back. The image of limitation, of the bounds that set free.
What this figure illuminates
Limitation lights up the value of bounds: without limits, water spreads and is lost; with them, it takes shape and strength. To limit yourself rightly is not to deprive yourself, but to give yourself a fertile frame.
For a decision, the figure questions your frames: “what limit, freely chosen, would make me more effective and freer, rather than scattered?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
Limitation: measure brings success. But limits made too harsh cannot last — sweet limitation, not bitter.
The Image
The lake holds only so much water; past its measure it overflows. Seeing this, the noble person sets measure and number, and weighs how to act well.
The Six Lines
- First line
Not yet stepping past your own door — you know when to hold back. No error in staying within bounds now.
- Second line
Holding back even when the gate stands open and the moment calls — caution turned to paralysis. Misfortune in missing the time.
- Third line
Keeping no measure, indulging without restraint, you will come to lament it. There is no one to blame but yourself.
- Fourth line
Keeping to measure easily and by nature, without strain. Progress and success.
- Fifth line
A limitation that is gentle and welcome — you set the measure and others gladly keep it. Good fortune.
- Sixth line
Limits imposed too harshly. Even upright, such severity brings misfortune — yet if you soften in time, the regret can still pass.
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
What limit, freely chosen, would make you freer?
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