ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the processes of change and balance as reflected in the hexagrams for the contemporary reader. The principle of decrease or exchange can occur either within the individual or between individuals, when one person chooses to relinquish something, perhaps power, in favour of another person. The hexagram is considered to have evolved from Tai / Peace, in that the lower primary trigram Chien of the latter has willingly decreased its strength by giving up one of its strong lines to the upper primary trigram Kun. The resulting hexagram pictures a lake at the foot of the mountain, an image that also contains the idea of exchange, as the moisture from the lake rises and benefits the vegetation on the mountain. While balance is a central ideal in the Ching, it is always dynamic, never static and this hexagram takes this idea to a deeper level.
