This hexagram has a Fire trigram on top of the Thunder trigram. Image-wise, if we take the highest and lowest solid lines are upper and lower jaws, and the dash lines as teeth, we can see the month biting on something inside. More accurately, it means to crack with teeth. It represents the use of punishment to correct a behavior.
Description:
- 亨: smooth flow or success.
- 利用狱: good to use punishment (literally, imprisonment).
Textual Commentary:
彖曰：颐中有物，曰噬嗑，噬嗑而亨。刚柔分，动而明，雷电合而章。柔得中而上行，虽不当位，利用狱也
There is something in the mouth, it is called 噬嗑 Biting. Chewing things to make the system flow. Hard and soft are equally divided and balanced. Movement brings clarity and brightness (of understanding). Thunder and lightning combined are clearly seen. Gentleness moves from the center position upwards. Even though its position is incorrect, it is good to use punishment.
Pictorial Commentary: 象曰：雷电噬嗑；先王以明罚敕法
Thunder and light make up biting; the Ancient King makes the rules right and executes punishments clearly and fairly.
Moral Teachings:
- Progress. The use of punishment is to clear the blockage and make the flow smooth. It is to remove bad behavior for progress to take place. This form of punishment is future-oriented, to ensure the right behavior. I think a better word is discipline.
- Clarity. The rules must be clear before the exercise of punishment. This point is highlighted in the pictorial commentary. To ensure clarity one must do the following;
- State the right behavior. Use examples and models to explain (see Learning from I-Ching Part 09 4 蒙 Naive – Learning Stage 1.
- State the consequences of not following the right behavior.
- Practice. Practicing and doing (movement) make the right behavior clear – whether right or wrong. Just writing them down in the rules book or talking about them is not sufficient. Only in practice can we see whether our teachings are really understood and followed.
- Correction. Saying something is wrong is not good enough. We must understand what leads to the wrong behavior and point out what is the right behavior. The Fish-bone 6M chart tells us there could many causes for errors. 6M stands for Environment (6M comes from German, a German word for the environment starts with M), Materials, Machine, Method, Measurement, and Man. A typical error is a misunderstanding due to poor communication and badly written rules. The correction allows us to find out the problem and help the person to understand and do the right thing in the future.
- Consequences. Often, the bad outcome is a good teacher. We learn from our painful experiences. If their natural outcome is not clear, immediate, or severe, then we need to implement the punishment made clear at the start (see 2.2 above). Not following through with the punishment will make a mockery of the rules.
- Forms of Punishment. The punishments in the ancient world were more than just imprisonment. Some were quite cruel and scary from a present-day point of view. We can see some of that in the Stage Lines text later. In the present day, a reprimand, or scolding will be considered a punishment. Shaming is not a good form of punishment. The purpose of administering punishment is to learn the right way. We must separate the tasks and the person. We need to get the person to do the task correctly. Shaming causes a loss of self-esteem and loose of motivation to do the task. We can get obedience from fear or willingness. Willingness is more effective and long-lasting.
- Balanced Hardness & Gentleness. Whether the punishment is a hard or soft approach will be dependent on the situation and the person. If the consequence is severe and of importance, the punishment should be correspondingly hard and severe. e.g. manager was fired immediately on lack of integrity or illegal activity like an attempt to bribe. The punishment for a trainee and a senior staff on for the same offense will be different.
- Here is an interesting observation about the behavior of Chinese parents. If a child plays and hurts himself in school, his parent will punish him for playing in school even though he has already hurt himself. The punishment is for bad playing. If he had played rightly, he would not have hurt himself. The hurt is only a discovery of bad behavior and it is not the punishment and so an extra punishment is given! Maybe there is a need for balance here. The hurt suffered is already the punishment as the consequence of the bad behavior.
Stage 1 Begin Nine: A shackle for the feet covering the toes. No blame or no disaster. 初九：屦校灭趾，无咎
The pictorial commentary explains that it is to stop movement. 屦校灭趾，不行也.
A shackle for the feet is a light punishment. The light punishment is for one to see his mistake and stop immediately; not committing the same mistake again or continuing on the wrong path. Correction should occur as early and as fast as possible. We are all aware that a small deviation in the early stages will lead to large variation in the later stage. It is always cheaper to correct faults at the early stages rather than late stages which could be too late and too costly to change. Arresting an early mistake is good. It is no blame and no disaster.
Stage 2 Second Six: Eat boneless meat and lose one’s nose. No blame. 噬肤灭鼻，无咎。
The pictorial commentary said it was because of hardened stubbornness. 噬肤灭鼻，乘刚也。
A more severe form of punishment in the ancient Chinese world is to cut away the nose. The person has hardened his heart against the light punishment imposed earlier and did not stop his bad behavior. Even though he knows it is wrong, he can’t resist the temptation to do the wrong thing. If he can learn from this more severe punishment, there is still hope and hence no blame or disaster.
Stage 3 Third Six: eat waxed meat and get food poison. A little regret and no disaster. 噬腊肉，遇毒；小吝，无咎。
The pictorial commentary says that the poisoning is due to incorrect positioning. 遇毒，位不当也。
The behavior is wrong because the person is not in the right position to do it. A typical business case is the sales executive gives away a big discount to close a deal where he has no authority to do it. People at the higher level have greater authority and resources to do things that the lower level staff have no rights. They could not just blindly follow what their superiors do.
Stage 4 Fourth Nine: Biting into dried meat with bones and finding a gold arrowhead. Good to persevere in integrity and truth. Good fortune. 九四：噬乾胏，得金矢，利艰贞，吉。
The pictorial commentary says perseverance is needed because it has not reached brightness yet. 利艰贞吉，未光也。
In the early stages, we are suffering for our errors. Now we are suffering for doing the right things. This is because the true gold, the goodness, is not obvious yet. Others could not see the benefits of our work. We need to continue in our work of integrity and truth.
Stage 5 Fifth Six: Biting into dried boneless meat and find yellow gold. Continued to be aware of the danger. No disaster. 六五：噬乾肉，得黄金，贞厉，无咎。
The pictorial commentary says there is no disaster because you are doing things correctly. 贞厉无咎，得当也。
The greater the rewards the greater the risk and hence the greater the care one needs to exercise. We must always make sure we are doing the right things rightly! You are in a high position and dealing with other high-ranking people. The impact is great and extra prudence is needed. If all is done well, the rewards will be great.
Stage 6 Top Nine: Shackle covered the ears. Danger. 上九：何校灭耳，凶。
Pictorial commentary explained that such severe punishment was the result of a lack of listening and understanding of wisdom. 何校灭耳，聪不明也.
The severity of punishment goes from feet(covering the toes) to hands and to the neck. For the neck, it is like the yoke of the cow. It covers the ears signifying deafness. A prolonged lack of listening to wise advice, ignoring the less painful consequences of early mistakes, and continuing on the wrong path only leads to the no-return point of severe punishment.
Summary:
For growth, we must administer punishment as a form of discipline. Its purpose is to correct wrong behavior to the right one so that progress can continue. The rules, expectations, and consequences must be made clear at the start. It is only through practice and mistakes that we can learn the right behavior. It must be balanced and applied according to the situation and person.
The stage lines below give more refined teachings on punishment:
- Punish and correct as early and as fast as possible.
- Learn from mistakes. Don’t commit the mistake twice.
- Make sure you have the right authority to do the things you want.
- Maybe persecuted for doing the right things, but persevere.
- Greater rewards demand greater care in the right execution.
- Listen and follow good advice. Don’t be stubborn.
No comments:
Post a Comment