Chapter XII - Summary
XII - 1
Ch'ien represents the strongest of all under the sky. Therefore its operations are always manifested with ease, for it knows where there would be peril and embarrasment.
K'un represents the most docile of all under the sky. Therefore its operations are always manifested with the promptest decision, for it knows where there would be obstruction.

XII - 2
Being able to rejoice in heart, and able also to weigh carefully all matters that could occasion anxiety, thus good and bad fortune of all under the sky may be determined and things requiring stenuous effort may be accomplished.

XII - 3
Therefore amid the changes and transformations taking place, and the words and deeds of men, events that are to be fortunate have their happy omens. The I shows the definite principles underlying the predictions of the former class, and the future of the latter.

XII - 4
The places of heaven and earth having been determined, the sages were able to carry out and complete their ability. The common people were able to share with them in the counsels of men and the counsels of Spiritual Beings.

XII - 5
The eight trigrams communicate their information by their images. The explanations appended to the lines and the completed hexagrams speak according to time and circumstances. The strong and weak lines appear mixed in them, and thus the good and evil indicated by them can be seen.

XII - 6
The changes and movements speak as from the standpoint of what is advantageous. The intimations of good and evil vary according to time and circumstances. Thus the lines may indicate a mutual influence, in any two of them, of love or hatred, and good or evil is the result; or that mutual influence may be affected by a line's nearness to, or distance from, another, and repentance or regret is the result; or the influence may be that of truth or of hypocricy, and then the result is what is advantageous or what is injurious.
In all these relations of the lines of the I, if two are related and do not blend harmoniously, there may be all these: evil, or injury, or occasion for repentance or regret.

XII - 7
The language of him who is meditating a revolt from the right betrays his inward shame; the language of him whose inward heart doubts about it diverges to other topics. The words of a good man are few; those of a coarse man are many. The words of one who slanders what is good are unsubstantial; those of him who is losing what he ought to keep are crooked.