Pushing Upward — 四九

The Line

Interpretation

Mount Ch'i is in the west of China, the ancestral land of King Wen, to whose son, the Duke of Chou, the words of the individual lines are attributed. It is a reminder of the times of the rise of the Chou dynasty. Then the great helpers were presented by King Wen to the god of the ancestral mountain, and they received their place at the side of the ruler in the ancestral halls. Here a stage is depicted in which pushing upward arrives at its goal. One becomes famous before people and gods and is received into the circle of men who in spirit build up the life of the nation, and thereby one gains lasting, super-temporal significance.