The Yî King · James Legge
Judgment
Li indicates that, (in regard to what it denotes), it will be advantageous to be firm and correct, and that thus there will be free course and success. Let (its subject) also nourish (a docility like that of) the cow, and there will be good fortune.
1882 scan · p. 120Line 1 · Nine, undivided
The first line, undivided, shows one ready to move with confused steps. But he treads at the same time reverently, and there will be no mistake.
1882 scan · p. 121Line 2 · Six, divided
The second line, divided, shows its subject in his place in yellow. There will be great good fortune.
1882 scan · p. 121Line 3 · Nine, undivided
The third line, undivided, shows its subject in a position like that of the declining sun. Instead of playing on his instrument of earthenware, and singing to it, he utters the groans of an old man of eighty. There will be evil.
1882 scan · p. 121Line 4 · Nine, undivided
The fourth line, undivided, shows the manner of its subject's coming. How abrupt it is, as with fire, with death, to be rejected (by all)!
1882 scan · p. 121Line 5 · Six, divided
The fifth line, divided, shows its subject as one with tears flowing in torrents, and groaning in sorrow. There will be good fortune.
1882 scan · p. 121Line 6 · Nine, undivided
The topmost line, undivided, shows the king employing its subject in his punitive expeditions. Achieving admirable (merit), he breaks (only) the chiefs (of the rebels). Where his prisoners were not their associates, he does not punish. There will be no error.
1882 scan · p. 122James Legge · The Yî King (1882), Princeton scan. All 450 selected passages were independently image-read and compared by AI; unresolved print details remain. Not human or expert collation. Source and data ↗