The I Ching in 30 Pages
Release
When the hard time finally ends, what do you most need to let go of?
Original
解：利西南。无所往，其來復吉；有攸往，夙吉。
彖曰：……天地解而雷雨作，雷雨作而百果草木皆甲坼，解之時大矣哉！
象曰：雷雨作，解；君子以赦過宥罪。In plain words
Release: the southwest is favourable. If there is nowhere you must go, coming back brings good fortune. If there is somewhere to go, going early brings good fortune. The Tuan Commentary says: … Heaven and earth loosen, and thunder and rain break out; thunder and rain break out, and the husks of every fruit tree and plant split open. Great indeed is the time of Release! The Image says: Thunder and rain: Release. The noble person forgives faults and pardons wrongs.
Key words
- 解xiè / jiěTo loosen or release; glossed in the Sequence as “easing.”
- 甲坼jiǎ chèA seed's hard husk splitting as the shoot comes through.
- 赦宥shè yòuTo forgive faults and pardon wrongs.
Reading it step by step
Turn Jian (page 18) upside down and you get Xie (Release): Thunder above, Rain below. The blocked road with water on the mountain clears in one thunderstorm. The Sequence of the Hexagrams glosses Xie as “easing”: to loosen, to undo. This is the last page of Theme III.
First: “the husks of every fruit tree and plant split open.” The commentary says that when heaven and earth loosen, thunder and rain break out, and every seed's hard shell cracks. All winter the husk held tight; one spring storm, and it splits and the shoot pushes through. “Great indeed is the time of Release!” Learn to recognise the moment when hardship loosens its grip. Many people get through the worst days and keep holding their bodies braced, never noticing they're allowed to let go.
Second: after the release, two roads. The Judgment says: if there's nowhere you must go, come back home and recover; if there's something still to do, do it early, before it hardens again. The trouble is doing it the other way round: pushing on when you should rest, and dawdling when you should act. The fourth line adds: “Untie your big toe, and friends will come and trust you.” Old ties, old arrangements, old grudges: until you loosen them, you can't walk.
nowhere you must go
somewhere to go
The danger is the reverse: pushing on when you should rest, dawdling when you should act.
Third: “forgive faults and pardon wrongs.” After the storm, everything comes back to life, and a person, too, should give the one who did wrong a chance to start again. Forgiving doesn't mean pretending it never happened. Nor does it mean dropping all boundaries; “without hatred, but firmly” from page 20 still stands. It means no longer clutching the thing in your fist. And often the one who most needs forgiving is yourself, for the wrong choice you made when you were cornered.
Look back over these eight pages. Kan taught us to treat danger as practice. Kun, that the body can be trapped while the heart stays free. Jian, to stop and work on ourselves. Mingyi, to veil our light and keep it. Dun, to step back cleanly, without hatred. Bo, to keep a seed. Fù, to turn back early. Xie, to open our hands after the rain. None of these situations was chosen. Every response was.
In the next theme we take all this with us, back among other people.
When the rain stops, open your hands.
You can't choose the situation; you can choose the response.
When the rain stops, open your hands.
Today's question
Is there an event, a person, or a past self you're still clutching? Which one finger could you loosen today?
Quick check
What does “forgive faults and pardon wrongs” mean on this page?
Like seeds after the storm: the husk has to split for the shoot to come.
III · When Things Are Hard — You can't choose the situation; you can choose the response
Notes from the Margin
Twice a month: a story from history and a question the pages don’t ask. Free.
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