䷧Hexagram 40 Release for work and career

At work Xie is the aftermath of a crisis: the deadline met, the dispute settled, the blockage removed. Movement has carried the organisation out of danger — 'by movement one escapes the peril', says the commentary — and the Judgment says two things about what comes next. If nothing more needs doing, return to normal; if something does, do it early. The Great Image gives the leadership style for the moment: pardon errors and deal gently with faults. Release that becomes a reckoning is not release.

The lines are the tasks of the clean-up. One: do nothing yet. Two: remove the petty complications with a straight and moderate hand. Three: do not let anyone, including yourself, sit in a role they have not earned, because it invites attack. Four: drop the clinging minor dependencies so that real allies can come forward. Five: the leader disengages from old entanglements and the troublemakers withdraw by themselves. Six: the last holdout is dealt with at once, after due preparation. A changing line in the lower trigram concerns easing off; in the upper, completing the disengagement.