Stand not in the middle of the hill and ‘green colored land’

This entry provides answers to two more of the ‘short cryptic messages’ from a Quanzhen heavenly immortal on one’s fortune. To refresh our memories, one appends the sentence that contains four of these messages:

“One advice – you should not stand in the middle of the hill otherwise the hill will open up and you will fall into the middle of the land below, like the sea in the middle of land, green colored land, and birds flying.”

As two of the messages, ‘Dizhonghai’ (the sea in the middle of land) and ‘Birds flying’ have already been dealt with in an earlier entry, let us look at the remaining two cryptic messages.

The first of the two is ‘not to stand in the middle of the hill otherwise the hill opens up resulting in a fall into the middle of the land below’. So what does the message say?

If we visualize the imagery, it looks like someone standing on a hill (or mountain). The hill opens up suddenly and the person falls into the middle of land (or earth). If readers still cannot picture it, have a look at the Mountain trigram. It is made up of a flat unbroken line at the top supported by two broken lines at the bottom. That is why the message says not to stand in the ‘middle’ (and not on top) of the hill. The Earth trigram made up by another three broken lines is taken to represent land below. If we look at all five broken lines, we will see that there is a middle parting or gap in each broken line. Therefore if the only unbroken line on the top of the mountain opens up or breaks, then the person standing in its middle falls all the way down the gap to the middle of earth below.

Mountain resting on Earth gives rise to Hexagram 23 where the Image says:
“The mountain rests on the earth; the image of Splitting Apart. Thus those above can ensure their position only by giving generously to those below.”

Those familiar with this hexagram may note a subtle difference between the imagery given in the message which infers that the mountain ‘collapses inwards’ instead of the Wilhelm/Baynes commentary that the mountain ‘topples over’. It is of no consequence however whether a mountain collapses inwards or topples over; a person standing on the mountain invariably gets injured by the upturned earth. To escape the danger the Junzi gives generously to the people below.

Next we take a look at ‘green colored land’. Does the green color mean trees, wood, grass or mountains? None seems to fit until one recalled that the Chinese sometimes refer to land as green land (especially those covered with grass and/or vegetation). (It pays to listen in on elders' conversations now and then.) Therefore ‘green colored land’ gives rise to the doubling of land or earth, meaning Hexagram 2 Kun / The Receptive, Earth. As some readers may be aware, the Yi gave a couple of omens, namely ‘the 9/11’ and ‘another 9/11’ incidents to me through this hexagram.

Of the four hexagrams contained in the sentence, except for the ‘Birds Flying’ of Hexagram 62, the remaining three have been delivered through the imagery of trigrams. Together with the much commented on ‘Shan Dao Shui’ or ‘hills pour water’ in another sentence, it has become apparent that the heavenly immortal was also teaching the student to look at trigrams and the Images back in 1993. Ignorant of the fact that both Eastern and Western scholars continuously argue over their usage, one began to analyze and examine the trigrams and the Images in detail. And found them to work just like what the immortal and ancients had indicated. Perhaps being a frog in the well has its own merits. But on a more serious note, there is more to it than that.


To be continued.