63. Jì Jì 既濟
AFTER COMPLETION, BALANCE
AFTER COMPLETION, BALANCE
Victory and success in an old matter. However, do not fall into complacency, new challenges await.
Victory and success in an old matter. However, do not fall into complacency, new challenges await.
Hexagram Structure
Of the sixty-four signs this is the only one with a flawless arrangement of lines: the strong occupy the odd positions, the weak the even, and not one stands out of its rank. The process of creation begun in the first sign is carried through to the end here: the individuality is wholly formed, the goal reached. But the Book knows no final full stops. By its law everything that has come to its limit starts leaning towards its opposite, and ideal order is no exception: behind the good fortune of the beginning the disorder of the end already shows through. That is why the promise of accomplishment is addressed to the small. What has been achieved can be held only by small, painstaking steadfastness, not by a new sweep — grand gestures are contraindicated for a completed situation. The sixty-third step is a summit from which the next valley is visible: harmony has come about, and for that very reason it cannot last for ever. Its task is to pass what has been created onward, into a new circle of changes.
How It Works in Practice
In disputes this sign prescribes a particular tactic. If a quarrel happens, do not have it out one to one — look urgently for a third person willing to act as a go-between. There is no reason to delay: the sooner a neutral figure appears between the sides, the easier it is to keep the conversation on a working track. A direct collision right now will only deepen the crack.
In business the main temptation of the period is repetition. A success once achieved lures you to walk the same route again, and that is exactly the wish not to give in to: the second attempt does not equal the first, circumstances have already shifted. A new undertaking is not cancelled by this — just do not throw all your strength into it at once. It will come to success under calm, measured handling too, without strain and without mobilising every reserve.
The source phrases its advice with rare definiteness: think over what has been said properly and act on it — the reward will be the full fulfilment of your wishes. The particular wish you have in mind will come true as well, but with some delay. A pause always lies between decision and result here, and hurrying it is useless: the time of delay is the very period of consolidation a completed situation demands. Count the pause as part of the result, not as an obstacle to it.
Traditional Description
Above is the trigram Kan (Water), below is the trigram Li (Fire). The metaphorical image of this hexagram is a kettle over a fire. The harmonious alternation of Yin and Yang lines further emphasizes the proper distribution of resources. Each line is in its place, signifying harmony and the absolute completion of any process or situation.
Ji Ji symbolizes victory but reminds us of the need for vigilance to secure achievements. If the water in the kettle is not watched, it will overflow and extinguish the fire; if the fire is left unattended, it may blaze so fiercely that the water in the kettle boils away. Balance and harmony are fragile. The success of an old matter is a starting point for a new one. Soon Changes will continue their course, and we will find ourselves in new situations in which it is worth remaining as collected and clear as on the path to this hexagram.
Ji Ji warns us against self-satisfaction; however, upon successfully completing a task, we are more prone than usual to succumb to this weakness. Ji Ji indicates that, if we want our project to be successful over a long period, a consolidation phase is necessary.
We are also advised not to immediately start other grand projects. Our initial enthusiasm may soon turn to exhaustion, and well-begun plans may end poorly. Stay vigilant and always remember the dynamics of changes, which are reflected in our inner world.nnnnn
I Ching Talking
If, passing by, you don’t protect yourself, someone from behind will attack you. Misfortune.
Hexagram Line Descriptions
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The top line records the end of harmony: the water reaches the head, a wave of chaos covers the person entirely. The source does not sweeten the picture — it speaks only of the danger and dread of the passage. But in the Book's logic this exit from order is not a catastrophe of fate but a necessity: freedom for new creation is won by breaking the completed form. A harmony that could not be left would become a prison. The step frightens honestly — and just as honestly opens the door to the next cycle.
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The fifth position sets two ways of treating success against each other. The eastern neighbours slaughter a cow — lavishly, expensively, for show; the western ones make do with a modest offering. In the face of oncoming chaos lavishness loses its value first, and the small sacrifice of the sincere outweighs the large sacrifice of the formal. Good fortune is promised not to the performer of rites but to the one who is truthful and knows how to proceed from within. At the summit of a completed process form no longer decides anything — inner stability does.
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The fourth step teaches one to look at well-being soberly: even the finest brocade will develop holes in time. The shoots of decay sprout right in the season of flowering, not after it. This law cannot be cancelled, only its action postponed, and so the step's prescription sounds like a lifelong rule: keep the prohibitions once accepted to the end of your days. Vigilance here is not anxiety but a mature knowledge of the nature of things. No achievement keeps by itself — it is guarded by daily effort.
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Going outward at the third position turns into a real war — a campaign against the land of demons, that is, the forces of disintegration closing in on the unity achieved. Victory is possible, but the price is named honestly: three years of struggle and an enormous outlay of moral strength. Hence a strict prohibition: people who are ethically immature must not enter such an undertaking — they will endure neither the term nor the temptations. Holding the whole together turns out to be work no lighter than creating it, and only someone who has grown to its scale has the right to take it on.
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The second step finds a person inside what has been achieved, and its main discovery is that hiding will no longer work. The result is visible to all, like a chariot whose curtains have been torn away; trying to regain one's unseen state is as useless as chasing cloth carried off by the wind. The source advises against the chase: what was lost will return by itself, in its own term — after a conventional seven days. The future has to be allowed to go its own way. Renown here is neither reward nor threat but a new condition of the task, and arguing with it makes no sense.
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The road through a completed situation begins with a question of pace. Driving at full gallop means spoiling the matter at the last moment; the wheels are worth holding back, even if the tail gets wet at the crossing. Behind the image stands a young fox, for whom caution on the crossing matters more than speed. Slowing down at the start is not weakness but insurance: a brisk start ruins precisely finished affairs, where there is something to lose. With due circumspection there will be no censure — a wet tail is forgiven to one who did not build up speed.
The sign has no combined aphorism for the case when all the lines act at once — the story is read through the six steps in a row. The start of the passage calls for holding the pace back, the middle for accepting unavoidable renown and enduring a long defence, the summit for preferring sincerity to lavishness, and the finale promises a wave that cannot be avoided. The order achieved does not keep by itself: it is prolonged by prohibitions, sobriety and small steadfastness. And still one day it gives way to chaos — the raw material from which a new circle will begin.