Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Stagnation
Hexagram 12 of the Yi Jing · 否 Pǐ
The figure
Heaven above Earth: the energies pull apart instead of meeting, each drawn to its extreme. The image of obstruction.
What this figure illuminates
Stagnation lights up the periods when the current no longer flows, when effort meets the wall. Forcing a closed passage exhausts; the moment calls instead for withdrawal and patience.
For a decision, the figure invites you to recognize when the ground is blocked: “is this the time to insist, or to withdraw, preserve my strength and wait for the current to return?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
The great departs, the small arrives; heaven and earth no longer speak. It is a standstill, and it does not favor the upright.
The Image
Heaven rises, earth sinks, and they part. Seeing this, the noble person veils their worth and steps clear of the coming harm.
The Six Lines
- First line
Pull one stalk and its neighbours come with it. Held correct, to withdraw together brings good fortune and a way through.
- Second line
Patient and yielding. The small get by; the great, refusing to bend the truth, find their success within the blockage itself.
- Third line
Ashamed of the schemes folded away in your heart. The standstill turns you back on yourself.
- Fourth line
Act in accord with what is ordained, and no error follows; those who share your aim share your good fortune.
- Fifth line
The obstruction begins to lift for the steady one. Keep saying, 'It could yet fail' — and so your ground grows firm, bound fast like roots to the mulberry.
- Sixth line
The standstill is overturned at last. What was blockage gives way to joy.
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
Should you insist, or save your strength until the current returns?
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