After the First Yang Returns

Sickness and the risk of humiliation come together, and the person riding through danger has not yet recovered. The third line names the appearance of one yang, which we take as the turn after the winter solstice when light begins to return, an identification of our own. Only past that point does the verse allow for sound planning.

Everything hard sits in the first half, and any good prospect stands on the far side of a single sign. That order follows the grade the book prints, Sue-kichi, Good fortune later.

As a thought for today, consider how a plan made at the lowest point differs from one made when the first small sign of change has shown itself. The verse separates the two, and the gap between them is worth looking at. The words about illness are old imagery and cannot tell anyone how an illness will go; that is a question for a doctor.