Hexagram 1: The Creative

Structure of the sign

The hexagram consists of six undivided lines. The undivided lines correspond to the light, strong, spiritual, active primal power. The hexagram is consistently strong throughout its nature. Since no weakness clings to it, its essential quality is power. Its image is heaven. The power is represented as not bound by specific spatial conditions. It is therefore conceived as movement. Time comes into consideration as the foundation of this movement. Thus, the power of time and the power of enduring in time—duration—are also comprehended within the hexagram. In explaining the hexagram, a twofold interpretation must be kept in view throughout: the macrocosmic and the effect upon the human world. Applied to cosmic events, the hexagram expresses the strong creative working of the Deity. Applied to the human world, it denotes the creative working of the holy man and sage, the ruler and leader of men, who through his power awakens and develops their higher nature.

The Judgment

The Creative works sublime success, furthering through perseverance. According to the original meaning, the attributes belong together in pairs. For him who obtains this oracle, it means that success from the primal depths of cosmic events will be granted to him, and that everything depends on his seeking his own and others' happiness solely through perseverance in what is right. Very early, contemplation turned to the four attributes in their distinct meanings. The Chinese word rendered by 'sublime' signifies 'head, origin, great.' Therefore it is said in the explanation of Confucius: 'Great indeed is the originating power of the Creative; all beings owe their beginning to it. And this power permeates the entire heaven.' For this first attribute also runs through the other three. The beginning of all things lies, so to speak, still in the beyond in the form of ideas that must first come to actualization. But within the Creative also lies the power to give shape to these archetypes of ideas. This is designated by the word 'success.' This process is represented under an image of nature: 'The clouds move, and the rain does its work, and all individual beings stream into their forms.' Transferred to the human sphere, these attributes show the great man the way to great success: 'By beholding the causes and effects with great clarity, he completes the six steps in due time and ascends upon them at the proper time to heaven as upon six dragons.' The six steps are the six individual positions of the hexagram, which are represented further below under the image of dragons. As the way to success, what is designated here is the recognition and realization of the cosmic meaning, which, as a continuous law through end and beginning, brings about all phenomena conditioned by time. Thus each attained step becomes at the same time the preparation for the next, and time is then no longer an obstacle, but the means of realizing what is possible. After the act of creation has been expressed through the two attributes sublime and success, the work of preservation as an ever-actualizing development is shown following the two expressions 'furthering'—that is, literally, 'creating what corresponds to the essence'—and 'persevering'—that is, literally, 'righteous and firm.' 'The course of the Creative alters and shapes beings until each attains its proper, destined nature; then it preserves them in accordance with the great harmony. Thus it shows itself furthering through perseverance.' Transferred to the human domain, it follows from this how the great man brings peace and security to the world through his ordering activity: 'As he raises his head above the multitude of beings, all lands unite in repose.' Another line of thought goes still further with the separation of the words 'sublime, success, furthering, persevering' and places them in parallel with the four cardinal human virtues: To 'sublimity,' which at the same time as a basic principle includes all other attributes, love is assigned. To the attribute 'success' is assigned ritual propriety, which orders and organizes the expressions of love and therefore makes them successful. To the attribute 'furthering' is assigned justice, which creates conditions in which everyone receives that which corresponds to his nature, which is due to him, and which constitutes his happiness. To the attribute of 'perseverance' is assigned wisdom, which recognizes the fixed laws of all that happens and is therefore able to create enduring conditions. These speculations, which are already suggested in the Wen Yen treatise in the second part of the Book of Changes, then formed the bridge by which the philosophy of the five stages of change (elements), anchored in the Book of Documents, was combined with the philosophy of the Book of Changes, which rests purely upon the polar duality of positive and negative principles, thereby opening the door in the course of time to an ever-widening numerical symbolism.

The Image

The movement of heaven is powerful. Thus the superior man makes himself strong and untiring. The doubling of the hexagram Ch'ien, whose image is heaven, indicates—since there is only one heaven—the movement of heaven. One complete circular movement of heaven is a day. The doubling of the hexagram signifies that each day is followed by another. This generates the concept of time and, at the same time, since it is the same heaven that moves in untiring power, of powerful duration in and above time—a movement that never halts or slackens, just as day follows day in ceaseless succession. This duration in time is the image of power as it is proper to the Creative. From this the sage derives the model for how he may develop himself toward enduring influence. He must make himself strong in a completely unified way by consciously eliminating everything that drags downward and is vulgar. Thus he gains the tireless quality that rests upon closed circles of activity.

The lines