EN (English)
䷻
Hexagram 60 of 64
Limitation
節 · Jié
Water in a lake, which holds a fixed amount and overflows past it. The hexagram is about limits, and it is careful to distinguish useful ones from self-punishing ones.
limits
measure
discipline
proportion
- King Wen number
- 60 of 64
- Above
- ☵ Kǎn · Water
- Below
- ☱ Duì · Lake
- Composition
- Water over Lake
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · solid · broken · broken · solid · broken
- Chinese
- 節 · Jié
The Judgment
Success. Bitter limitation must not be persisted in.
The classic endorses limits and then immediately withdraws the endorsement from the punishing kind. Both halves are the teaching.
The Image
Water above the lake: Limitation. So the noble person creates number and measure, and examines the nature of character and conduct.
Measurement is the instrument. You cannot set a sensible limit on something you have not counted.
What it means
Jie is a joint of bamboo: the node that divides the stalk into sections and is the reason it can stand up. The classic uses it for limits of every kind, and its position is that limits are structural rather than restrictive.
The Judgment states both halves in eight characters. Limitation brings success; bitter limitation must not be persisted in. The book is not recommending austerity. It is recommending proportion, and it says outright that a limit which has become a punishment should be abandoned.
The first two lines are the sharpest pair in the hexagram, and almost identical in wording. Not going out of the door and courtyard: no blame. Not going out of the gate and courtyard: misfortune. The same restraint, one line apart, correct in one place and wrong in the next. The classic is making a point about timing that it makes nowhere else so economically.
The Image gives the method. Create number and measure, then examine conduct. You cannot set a workable limit on anything you have not first counted, which is why the hexagram associates itself with accounting and the calendar.
In a reading
Limitation as an answer favours setting a boundary: a budget, a scope, a deadline, an amount, a rule about what you will not do.
Its counsel is to make the limit proportionate and to measure before you set it. And it asks one question back: if a limit you are keeping has turned bitter, the top line says persisting in it is the mistake, not abandoning it.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Six at the top
Bitter limitation. Steadfastness brings misfortune. Regret disappears.
Restriction that has become punitive. Persisting in it is the error, and letting it go clears the regret.
-
Nine in the fifth place
Sweet limitation. Good fortune. Going brings esteem.
The ruling line. Restraint that others find attractive rather than forbidding.
-
Six in the fourth place
Contented limitation. Success.
Limits accepted without struggle. Nothing is being suppressed.
-
Six in the third place
Someone who knows no limits will have cause to lament. No blame.
Excess and its consequence, and the blame is lifted for anyone who recognises it.
-
Nine in the second place
Not going out of the gate and the courtyard. Misfortune.
Almost the same words, opposite verdict. The restraint that was correct at the first line is a missed moment at the second.
-
Nine at the beginning
Not going out of the door and the courtyard. No blame.
Staying in when staying in is right. The line is approved without qualification.
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