I-Ching Hexagram 40
解 Deliverance
Also known as Release
The storm that breaks the tension. After a long difficulty, release comes.
deliverance · release · resolution
The Story
After three years of drought, the rain came in the night — not a storm, but a long steady fall that the earth drank as if remembering. In the morning, farmers walked their fields with a strange lightness. The magistrate, who had been harsh during the hard years, issued an amnesty for small offenses. "We have been released," he said. "Let us release each other." The village that carried forward the grievances of the drought did not prosper in the wet years. The one that let the old injuries dissolve with the old dust, did.
The Judgment
The south-west furthers. If there is no longer anything where one has to go, return brings good fortune. If there is still something where one has to go, hastening brings good fortune.
The Image
Thunder and rain set in: the image of deliverance. Thus the superior person pardons mistakes and forgives misdeeds.
Interpretation
The storm that breaks the tension. After a long difficulty, release comes. The counsel is quickness where a task remains, completion where it is done, and an amnesty of spirit — do not carry forward the grievances of the bad time.
Trigrams
The Six Lines
- First (Bottom) Without blame. The rain has fallen; nothing more to say.
- Second One kills three foxes in the field and receives a yellow arrow. Perseverance brings good fortune. Rooting out hidden flatterers; reward for straight aim.
- Third If a man carries a burden on his back and nonetheless rides in a carriage, he thereby encourages robbers to draw near. Displaying wealth in a position one has not earned attracts attack.
- Fourth Deliver yourself from your great toe. Then the companion comes, and in them you can trust. Cut loose from a compromising attachment; real friendship then becomes possible.
- Fifth If only the superior person can deliver themselves, it brings good fortune. Thus they prove to inferior people that they are in earnest. Self-liberation that models it for others.
- Sixth (Top) The prince shoots at a hawk on a high wall. He kills it. Everything serves to further. One decisive act removes what has long obstructed; all proceeds well.