43. Kuai

	Resolution
	Upper Trigram:	Tui, Joy, a Lake
	Lower Trigram:	Ch'ien, Creative Principle, Heaven
	Governing Ruler:	Nine in the fifth place
	Constitutional Ruler:	Top-most six

The Image
The waters of a lake evaporated, and collecting high in the sky: The image of Kuai. The superior man, in accordance with this, bestows emolument on those below him, and dislikes allowing his gifts to accumulate undispensed.

Miscellaneous Signs
The strong disperse the weak; Kuai teaches so.
Prospers the good man's way; to grief all small men go.

The Judgement
Kuai requires - in him who would fulfil its meaning - the exhibition of the offender's guilt in the royal court, and a sincere and earnest appeal for sympathy and support, with a conciousness of the peril involved in exposing the criminal. He should also make announcement in his own city, and show that it will not be well to have recourse at once to arms. In this way there will be advantage in whatever he shall go forward to.

See also: Ta Chuan - Section 2, Chapter II-13.

Commentary
Kuai is the symbol of displacing or removing. We see in the hexagram the strong lines displacing the weak. We have in it the trigrams for strength and complacency. There is displacement, but harmony continues.
'The exhibition of the criminal's guilt in the royal courtyard', is suggested by the one weak line, mounted on the five strong lines. There is 'a sincere and earnest appeal for sympathy and support, with a conciousness of the peril involved in the undertaking': it is the realisation of this danger which makes the method brilliant.
'He should make an announcement in his own city, and show that it will not be well to have recourse at once to arms': if he had recourse to arms, his course would soon be exhausted.
'There will be advantage in whatever he shall go forward to': when the growth of the strong lines has been completed, there will be an end to the displacement.

The Lines and commentaries
Bottom nine
Showing its subject in the pride of strength, advancing with his toes. He goes forward, but will not succeed. There will be ground for blame.

'He goes forward without being able to succeed': this is an error.

Nine in the second place
Showing its subject full of apprehension and appealing for symphaty and help. Late at night, hostile measures may be taken against him, but he need not be anxious about them.

'Though hostile measures may be taken against him, he need not be anxious about them': he pursues the course of the due mean.

Nine in the third place
Showing its subject advancing with strong and determined looks. There will be evil. But the superior man, bent on cutting off the criminal, will walk alone and encounter rain. He will be hated by his proper associates as if he were contaminated (by his offensive correlate). In the end, however, there will be no blame against him.

'The superior man looks bent on cutting off the criminal': there will in the end be no error.

Nine in the fourth place
Showing one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped, and who walks slowly and with difficulty. If he could act like a sheep led after its companions, occasion for repentance would disappear. But, though he hear these words, he will not believe them.

'He walks slowly and with difficulty': he is not in the place appropriate to him.
'He hears these words but does not believe them': because he fails to understand.

Nine in the fifth place
Small men like a bed of weeds, which ought to be uprooted with the utmost determination. The subject of the line having such determination, his action, in harmony with his central position, will lead to no error or blame.

'If his action be in harmony with his central position, there will be no error': but his standing in the due mean is not yet clearly displayed.

Top-most six
Showing one with no helpers on whom to call. His end will be evil.

'There is the misery of having none on whom to call': the end will be that he cannot continue any longer.