Hexagram 19 changing to 60: Approach to Limitation

Where it starts: 19 Approach

A favourable time approaching, and the reminder that it will pass: use it before the eighth month. Lake below, earth above: the earth leaning over the water, the higher approaching the lower with care. Approach describes a rising time, spring coming, the strong lines entering from below and growing. The judgement is very favourable and it contains a warning: in the eighth month there is misfortune. The season will turn. The reading asks you to act now, generously and attentively, as someone in authority approaches those they are responsible for, and to keep the coming turn in mind so that the gains are secured before it arrives.

Where it goes: 60 Limitation

Water in a lake with a bank: limits that give form and save strength, provided they are not galling. Lake below, water above: a lake that holds only so much, and overflows past its limit. Limitation describes measure: the boundaries, rules and economies that give a life or an undertaking its shape. The Chinese character is the joint of a bamboo stalk, the division that makes the whole strong. The tradition's judgement is that limitation brings success, and that galling limitation must not be persisted in. Limits are good when they fit and harmful when they crush. The image is of the wise person creating number and measure and examining the nature of virtue and conduct. The reading says the situation asks for limits, chosen deliberately, and asks you to set them where they strengthen rather than where they strangle.

The lines that move

1. Line 5

   Wise approach. Right for a great prince. Good fortune.

   The leader who does not do everything themselves, who finds capable people and lets them act. Wisdom here is knowing what to delegate. The line is fortunate because it multiplies the leader's reach. Delegate to the capable and trust them.

What is changing. The situation of Approach is moving toward Limitation. Act generously and attentively while the time is favourable, and secure the gains before it turns. As the change completes: Set limits deliberately, where they give form and save strength, and keep them; loosen any that gall.

love and relationships

Now: Things are growing and the time to invest in them is now. Approach the other person with care and generosity. The reading's warning is that a good season is not permanent: use it to build what will last past it. Then: Boundaries, agreed and kept: what each of you needs, what each of you will not do, how much is enough. The reading favours limits that both of you accept and warns against ones that gall. The right measure makes the relationship strong at the joints.

career

Now: Rising influence and opportunity. Engage fully, teach and protect the people you are responsible for, and secure the gains. The eighth month is a real deadline: what is not established by then may be lost. Then: Discipline and economy: the scope defined, the hours set, the standard fixed. The reading favours clear limits that people can work within, and warns against constraints so tight that they break the people they were meant to shape.

money

Now: A growing phase. Invest, build and act while conditions favour it, and set aside for the turn. Do not assume the rise continues indefinitely. Then: Budget. The reading is for thrift and measure, limits set deliberately and kept. It warns against both extravagance and a stinginess so severe it becomes its own harm. Find the proportion.

decisions

Now: Act now on the opportunity; delay wastes a favourable season. Choose the option that uses the rising conditions while they last and does not depend on them lasting. Then: Choose the option with clear, bearable limits. Decide how much is enough before you decide anything else. The reading is against open-ended commitments and against ones so restrictive they cannot be kept.