The trigram above – K’AN – the Abysmal, Water
The trigram below – TUI – the Joyous, Lake
General: Although your potential is limitless, your capabilities are not.
Love: Don’t try to move too fast in your relationship. Start slowly and build a strong and lasting friendship.
Business: This is a time for quality not quantity. Do not overreach yourself in business.
Personal: Long-term happiness is best achieved slowly.
A lake occupies a limited space. When more water comes into it, it overflows. Therefore limits must be set for the water. The image shows water below and water above, with the firmament between the m as a limit.
The Chinese word for limitation really denotes the joints that divide a bamboo stalk. In relation to ordinary life it means the thrift that sets fixed limits upon expenditures. In relation to the moral sphere it means the fixed limits that the superior man sets upon his actions – the limits of loyalty and disinterestedess.
Limitations are troublesome, but they are effective. If we live economically in normal times, we are prepared for times of want. To be sparing saves us from humiliation. Limitations are also indispensable in the regulation of world conditions. In nature there are fixed limits for summer and winter, day and night, and these limits give the year its meaning. In the same way, economy, by setting fixed limits upon expenditures, acts to preserve property and prevent injury to the people.
But in limitation we must observe due measure. If a man should seek to impose galling limitations upon his own nature, it would injurious. And if he should go too far in imposing limitations on others, they would rebel. Therefore it is necessary to set limits even upon limitation.
