After Completion
- Upper Trigram
- Water
- Lower Trigram
- Fire
The Judgment
Water stands above fire, the pot at the boil just right — After Completion is about having crossed over, the moment when everything is in place and everything has come to be. In this hexagram each of the six lines rests in its proper seat, firm and yielding answering one another; it is the most perfectly ordered figure of all sixty-four: what was to be done is done, what was to be achieved is achieved. Yet the deepest wisdom of the Book of Changes hides just inside this completeness — precisely because the peak is reached, the way ahead runs downhill; precisely because all is right, the least slackening lets it begin to go wrong. So the judgement says fortunate at the start, disordered at the end: good in the beginning, but guard against confusion at the close. After Completion does not teach you to lie back and enjoy the harvest, but to stay watchful at the best of times — the balance of water over fire is momentary, for stronger fire boils the water dry and fuller water drowns the fire. The truly mature, at the very instant a thing is achieved, begin preparing to hold it and to meet the next turn. If you have just finished something great, it is worth celebrating — and worth asking: this result, how do I mean to guard it?
The Six Lines
First line
As a cart fords the river, first drag the wheel to slow it, so the fox only wets its tail and comes to no great harm. This first line of After Completion is about restraint and care as the great work nears its finish. The closer to success and the fairer the wind, the more you should know to touch the brake a little; not rushing to the very end but leaving some margin is what carries the last stretch across steadily.
Second line
Like a woman who loses the screen of her carriage and cannot set out for a while — but there is no need to chase after it, for in seven days it returns of itself. This line is about small setbacks and the composure of what is lost and regained. After a thing is done, small items go missing and small matters snag; do not panic and give chase over a passing loss — keep your own rhythm, and what is meant to return returns in its time.
Third line
Like Gao Zong marching against the far Demon Land, taking three full years to subdue it; such a costly undertaking must not be handed to those small in scope. This line is about the endurance great achievement needs and care in whom you employ. Some victories are won inch by inch through long persistence and cannot be hurried; see clearly, too, whom you entrust — give the heavy charge to those of real breadth, and do not let small-minded people spoil the whole.
Fourth line
Fine clothes will in the end turn to tattered rags, so keep on your guard all day long. This line is about wariness of hidden flaws after the peak. Even the best situation slowly wears and cracks; do not slacken because all is well now — carry with you the awareness that something may go wrong at any time, and mend early, and so you hold the fruit already won.
Fifth line
The eastern neighbour slaughters an ox in lavish sacrifice, yet it is not equal to the western neighbour's simple offering in truly receiving the blessing. This line is about sincerity mattering more than display. Within a settled situation, what keeps fortune is not grand show but a plain and reverent heart; rather than compete over whose spread is larger, return to sincerity itself — it is the genuine that can bear blessing.
Top line
As in fording the river even the head gets soaked, the situation turns perilous. This line closes After Completion, about wholeness reaching its end and, without restraint, hiding danger. When a thing is done and you still charge on, greedy for more and not knowing where to stop, it is like wading back into deep water after reaching the bank — you only soak yourself and slip into danger; knowing to halt in time at the peak is what keeps the result from capsizing at the final pass.
Reading the Change
After Completion is about having crossed over, the moment when all is in place, yet it also holds the reminder that it is fortunate at the start and disordered at the end, the peak already tipping toward decline. From the first line to the top it runs from restraint as the great work nears its finish and what is lost and regained after a small setback, through the endurance and careful employment great deeds need and daily guard against hidden flaws, to sincerity over display, and finally the danger of greed that will not stop. It teaches you not to lie back and enjoy but to stay watchful at the best of times and hold what is won early. When a line changes, the emphasis — to be careful, to keep guard, or to know when to stop — shifts at that stage. A change low down mostly asks you to draw in a little on a fair wind and keep your rhythm; a change up top speaks of guarding blessing through sincerity and halting in time at the peak. Read where the changing line falls, then the resulting hexagram, and you know how this wholeness is to be held.