Hexagram 21 · Line 2
Biting Through — 二六
Shi He · Er Liu
二六 · Er Liu
The Line
Bites through tender meat, so that the nose disappears. No blame.
Interpretation
Right and wrong are easy to distinguish in the case at hand. It is as if one were biting through tender meat. But one meets with a hardened sinner. Therefore out of anger one goes somewhat too far in the excitement. The disappearance of the nose in biting through means that one loses the fine sense of discrimination owing to the outrage. But this does not matter much, because the punishment as such is just.