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The I Ching, Legge tr.

The I Ching, Legge tr.: The Yî King Text: Section I...

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The Yî King Text: Section I: VIII. The Pî Hexagram Similar meaning (70%) The I Ching, Legge tr.: The Yî King Text: Section I... Similar meaning (70%) The I Ching, Legge tr.: The Yî King Text: Section I... Similar meaning (65%) The I Ching, Legge tr.: The Yî King Text: Section I... Similar meaning (63%)
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This is a classical Chinese divinatory text from the I Ching (Book of Changes), specifically Hexagram 22 (Pî/Bì), along with its traditional line-by-line commentary. The hexagram's central theme is ornamentation and adornment: it argues that beauty and elegance have a legitimate place in nature and society, but are always secondary to substance and moral correctness. Each of the six lines explores a different aspect of this tension — from humble self-cultivation (line 1) to faithful simplicity (line 6) — using imagery of adorned feet, beards, white horses, silk offerings, and hilltop gardens. A distinctive and recurring claim is that ornament which acknowledges its own subordinate status leads to good fortune, while ornament that overreaches or substitutes for solidity invites misfortune. The commentary, drawing on Confucian sensibility, culminates in the view that the highest form of adornment is a return to plain whiteness — pure simplicity — suggesting that the arc of the hexagram is a critique of excess dressed as aesthetic philosophy.

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