䷻ Jié 節 / Regulating

ZéShàngYǒuShuǐ Jié JūnZǐ Yǐ ZhìShùDù YìDéXíng

澤上有水 節 君子 以 制數度議德行

There is water above the marsh, which is the natural pattern of hexagram Jié 節. Learning from this, the enlightened being creates measuring standards and discusses moral behavior.

— DaXiang 大象

Those of you who have been following my writing on hexagram symbolism are well familiar how the basic structure of the hexagram DaXiang 大象 sentences relates to the symbolic meanings of their associated trigrams. As Confucius said, “WēnGùÉr ZhīXīn 溫故而知新, Reviewing the old helps one understand the new” - I will continue repeating this fundamental information for each hexagram for you each time.

The first Chinese character is Zé 澤, which means marsh, swamp, nourish, grace, brilliance, damp, moist, or fertile. It is the symbolic image of the bottom trigram, ☱ Duì 兌, which stands for open, exchange, joy, west, evening, change, shaman, moon, and more. The second character Shàng 上, means above, over, on, or on top and it describes the position of an object or situation. Yǒu 有 means exist, have/has, or there be. Shuǐ 水 means water, and represents the top trigram, Kǎn 坎 ☵, of the hexagram.

Put together, ZéShàngYǒuShuǐ means there is water over the marsh, which describes the structure of this hexagram ䷻. Therefore, the natural image of the hexagram ䷻ is water over marsh, or a marsh full with water. This is the opposite image of hexagram ䷮ Kun 困 - Bundle, when there is no water in a marsh. In the Kun/Bundle hexagram ䷮, the image shows water being trapped under the marsh, so that we aren’t able to see water on the surface of the marsh. This is the image of being wrapped in a difficult situation. In the case of this hexagram, ䷻ Jié, water is on the surface of marsh, which is a warning of overflow or flooding, and an indication to either regulate the flow ``````of water flow or evacuate ourselves before the flood occurs.