Splitting Apart

The Undermined Foundation

Hollowed out from beneath: hold still, be generous to those below, and guard the seed that survives.

Splitting Apart, Bo, sets Keeping Still, Mountain, above the Receptive, Earth. The mountain rests on the ground rather than rising from it, held up by nothing but what lies beneath, and the lines say why: five yielding lines have risen from below and a single firm line remains at the top. The line texts follow the destruction upward through a bed, from its legs to its frame and at last to the skin, and the judgement concludes that it does not further one to go anywhere. The tradition does not read this as a call to resistance, since the time itself is adverse; the Image advises instead that those above secure their position only by generosity towards those below.