36. Ming I / Eclipsing the Light
(Earth above Fire)
Description
Warmth and Light are swallowed by Deep Darkness:
The Superior Person shows his brilliance by keeping it veiled among the masses.
Stay true to your course, despite the visible obstacles ahead.
Analysis
This time calls for a saintly effort to turn the other cheek.
You have been deliberately injured.
Going blow-for-blow will only escalate this war.
Abstain from vengeance.
Show all watching that you are above it.
Sidestep your aggressor's headlong charge, giving him the opportunity to fall on his face.
Changing Lines
Line 1
The pheasant's wings falter and droop from exhaustion.
The man wanders three days without eating.
He goes where he must, though scorn awaits him.
Line 2
The grieving pheasant has a wounded left wing.
The agent of darkness wounds the man in his left thigh.
Still the man helps others to safety with the strength of a horse.
Line 3
The wounded pheasant hesitates outside the grain-filled cage.
The man chases the agent of darkness back into the night, risking his own safety in the shadowy domain.
Line 4
The pheasant senses danger and flees the jaws of the trap.
Descending into the belly of the beast, the man beholds the true face of evil.
In revulsion and despair, he flees what he knows he can never defeat.
Line 5
The wounded pheasant is captured.
Despite its fright, this is a turn for the better.
Line 6
Its broken wing mended, the pheasant is released to its fate.
Realizing that darkness co-exists with the light in his own heart, the man transcends the bonds of good and evil, and freely roams the heights of Heaven and the bowels of Hell.