Hexagram 59: Dispersion

Structure of the sign

The wind moving above over the water disperses it, dissolving it into foam and mist. In this also lies the idea that when vital energy becomes congested in man (as indicated by the attribute of danger in the lower sign), it is dispersed and dissolved once more through gentleness.

The Judgment

Dispersion. Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to cross the great water. Perseverance furthers. In its text, the sign bears a resemblance to the sign Ts'ui, 'Gathering Together' (No. 45). There it concerns the collecting of what is separated, as water gathers in lakes upon the earth. Here it concerns the dispersion and dissolution of divisive egotism. The sign 'Dispersion' shows, as it were, the path that leads to gathering together. Hence the similarity of the text is explained. To overcome the dividing egoism of men, religious forces are required. The shared celebration of the great sacrificial festivals and worship, which simultaneously expressed the coherence and social order of family and state, was the means employed by the great rulers to bring hearts, in a common surge of feeling through sacred music and the splendor of ceremonies, to the consciousness of the shared origin of all beings, whereby division was overcome and rigidity dissolved. Another means is cooperation in great common undertakings that set a lofty goal before the will and, directed toward this goal, dissolve all that divides, just as in a ship crossing a great stream, all passengers must unite in common work. Yet only one who is himself free from all selfish ulterior motives, abiding in righteousness and constancy, is capable of such dissolution of the hardness of egotism.

The Image

The wind drives across the water: the image of Dispersion. Thus the ancient kings sacrificed to the Lord and erected temples. In autumn and winter, water begins to harden and freeze into ice. When the mild airs of spring arrive, the rigidity dissolves, and that which was scattered in floes of ice reunites. So it is likewise with the mind of the people. Through hardness and selfishness the heart grows rigid, and in this rigidity it separates itself from all else. Egotism and greed isolate human beings. Therefore a devout emotion must seize the human heart. It must be dissolved in sacred intimations of eternity that stir it through the awareness of the common Creator of all beings and unite it through the power of fellowship in the sacred rite of worshiping the Divine.

The lines