Some Hard Truths

The Image

Legge: The images of thunder and lightning form Discernment. Thus the ancient kings promulgated their laws and framed their penalties with intelligence.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder and lightning: The image of Biting Through. Thus the kings of former times made firm the laws through clearly defined penalties.

Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes lightning accompanied by thunder. The ancient rulers, after making their legal code perfectly clear to all, enforced the laws vigorously. [The firm and yielding lines more or less alternate; or the lower trigram can be regarded as filled with the power of thunderous force, while the upper trigram, representing beauty, is soft and yielding. (Li, the upper trigram, stands for lightning as well as for fire, beauty, etc.) I do not know what the ancient Chinese views on thunder and lightning were; it appears from this that they were regarded as two forces which, like steel and flint, emitted brilliance when brought into sharp contact with each other. A pair of trigrams both with yielding centers is not felt to be a good arrangement; that it nevertheless favors the process of the law may have been suggested to the writer of the Text by the fact that the weak lines (morally weak people?) are fully contained by the strong (prison walls, warders and so forth?)]

Liu: Thunder and lightning symbolize Chewing. The ancient kings made the laws and clarified the penalties.

Ritsema/Karcher: Thunder, lightning. Gnawing Bite. The Earlier Kings used brightening flogging to enforce the laws.

Cleary (1): Thunder and lightning, biting through. Thus did the kings of yore clarify penalties and proclaim laws. [Those who administer laws should emulate the ancient kings in first clarifying them before executing them, in order to avoid mistakenly injuring life.]

Wu: Thunder and lightning form Discernment. Thus the ancient kings made just punishments and upheld the law of the land.