New Year: I Ching Hexagram 64—Not Yet Fulfilled

64
Fire Over Water
Wei Ji • Not Yet Fulfilled

The ideograph of wei above is meticulous—it looks simple, yet its meaning is profound. The stem of the ideograph is a tree, mu. A second curved stroke was added through the tree and thus the ideograph of wei was created. Without the horizontal stroke we have a picture of a tree with its roots growing downward and its branches growing upward. The horizontal stroke represents the ground. The portion of the tree underneath the ground is still alive. It has already grown to its full height (fulfilled its growth), and now it starts a new cycle of growth. The structure of the ideograph supplies a vivid picture of having achieved one’s goal, but not yet having been fulfilled. There is a new cycle to come. The meaning of the ideograph of ji signifies crossing a river, from here to there, or from beginning to end.

SIGNIFICANCE

This gua ends the sixty-four gua and the three hundred and eighty-six yao of the I Ching. But the principle of change continues without end. Events in the universe move forward and alternate in cycles. The stage of Not Yet Fulfilled will gradually reach the stage of Already Fulfilled. The stage of Already Fulfilled is merely the fulfillment of certain events or of a certain stage in a cycle of events. If some occurrences have reached the stage of Already Fulfilled, there are always others that are Not Yet Fulfilled. The stage of Already Fulfilled is also the stage of Not Yet Fulfilled. The stage of Not Yet Fulfilled is the beginning, like the dark before the dawn. The I Ching starts with Qian, the Initiating, and ends with Wei Ji, Not Yet Fulfilled. When the development of events reaches the end of a cycle, Already Fulfilled, then another cycle, Not Yet Fulfilled, begins. In this way, the cycles of change and development repeat endlessly.

A transition from disorder to order is representative of the I Ching as a whole. In the beginning it swings from extreme to extreme, with no balance in between. By the time it reaches the final gua, Already Fulfilled and Not Yet Fulfilled, a perfect state of balance has been achieved.

During King Wen’s sitting in stillness he reflected on the past in light of the present. The destiny of the Shang dynasty had been fulfilled. The destiny of the Zhou was not yet fulfilled. Its situation was like that of the little fox who had almost crossed a river. There was success in store, and nothing was unfavorable.

The Complete I Ching, Taoist Master Alfred Huang