Hexagram 63 · Line 3
After Completion — 三六
Ji Ji · San Liu
The Line
The high ancestor chastises the devil's land. After three years he overcomes it. One should not employ petty people.
Interpretation
The High Ancestor is the dynastic title of the ruler Wu Ting of the Yin dynasty. After he had ordered the conditions in the empire with a strong hand, he led long colonial wars for the subjugation of the northern border regions inhabited by the Huns, from which invasions continually threatened. The situation depicted is that after times of completion, when a new power has arisen and within everything is in order, with a certain necessity the colonial expansion begins. In this, as a rule, long struggles are to be reckoned with. But in this, a right colonial policy is particularly important. One must not regard the hard-won territories as a provisioning institution for people who have somehow made themselves impossible at home but are still just good enough for the colonies. Thereby one ruins from the start every success. This holds in great as in small; for not only rising states carry on colonial policy. Every aspiring undertaking lies near to the drive toward expansion and the dangers bound up with it.