Hexagram 21, line 1
初九Line 1 of Biting Together
Nine at the beginning · 噬嗑 shì kè
爻辭 The line text
屨校滅趾，无咎。The first line, undivided, shows one with his feet in the stocks and deprived of his toes. There will be no error.
屨校滅趾，不行也。'His feet are in the stocks, and he is deprived of his toes:'—there is no walking (to do evil).
In plain words
Shi He is an open mouth with something caught between the jaws, the fourth line, and the hexagram is about biting through it. The bottom and top lines are not the biters but the bitten: those who receive the correction. Line one 'wears the stocks on his feet so that his toes disappear' — a light restraint at the very start of wrongdoing, and the text says no blame. The small Image explains: he cannot walk (不行也), and so cannot go further into error. The 繫辭 reads this line as the small person who is 'warned by a small punishment' and thereby spared a great one; the yang line at the bottom of Zhen, movement, is stopped before it moves.
If this line is changing
If you have been checked at the first step, accept the check; a small restraint now is what keeps a small fault from becoming a large one.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang line that moves when cast.
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
- It belongs to the lower trigram 震 Zhen (the Arousing) (thunder).
- It has no correspondence (無應) with line 4: both lines are yang, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.
之卦 When this line moves
噬嗑 Biting Together becomes ䷢ 35 晉 Advancing
The sun rising over the earth: progress. The capable prince is rewarded with horses and received three times in a day — advancement in the light.
What it becomes35 · 晉 AdvancingjìnThe six lines of 噬嗑 Biting Together
- 初九Nine at the beginningfeet in the stocks · stopped early · no blame
- 六二Six in the second placebiting soft flesh · easy and deep · riding the strong
- 六三Six in the third placeold dried meat · meeting poison · wrong place
- 九四Nine in the fourth placemeat on the bone · metal arrows · hard but right
- 六五Six in the fifth placedried meat · yellow gold · firm amid danger
- 上九Nine at the topthe cangue · deaf to warning · evil
Read 噬嗑 Biting Together for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine at the beginning of hexagram 21, Biting Together, mean?
- Shi He is an open mouth with something caught between the jaws, the fourth line, and the hexagram is about biting through it. The bottom and top lines are not the biters but the bitten: those who receive the correction. Line one 'wears the stocks on his feet so that his toes disappear' — a light restraint at the very start of wrongdoing, and the text says no blame. The small Image explains: he cannot walk (不行也), and so cannot go further into error. The 繫辭 reads this line as the small person who is 'warned by a small punishment' and thereby spared a great one; the yang line at the bottom of Zhen, movement, is stopped before it moves.
- What does hexagram 21 become when line 1 changes?
- Biting Together becomes hexagram 35, 晉 Advancing: The sun rising over the earth: progress. The capable prince is rewarded with horses and received three times in a day — advancement in the light.
- Is line 1 of Biting Together in its correct place?
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).