Hexagram 38 · Line 1
Opposition — 初九
Kui · Chu Jiu
The Line
Remorse vanishes. If you lose your horse, do not run after it. It will come back of itself. If you see evil people, guard against mistakes.
Interpretation
Even in times of opposition one can so act that one remains free of mistakes, so that remorse vanishes. At the beginning of opposition, one must not want to force unity; one would thereby only achieve the opposite, as a horse moves ever further away when one runs after it. If it is our horse, one can calmly let it run: it comes back of itself. So too a person who belongs to us and, in consequence of a misunderstanding, momentarily moves away from us, comes back of themself if one lets them be. On the other hand, one must be cautious when evil people who do not belong to us press near, also through a misunderstanding. Here it is a matter of avoiding mistakes: not wanting to remove them by force, through which enmity would only arise more surely, but simply tolerating them. They withdraw of themselves.