Tuesday, December 7. 2004
The Chinese Icarus
At 1-6 it says "亢龍有悔". Kang 亢
is often translated as 'pride, arrogance', but this is just one of the
many meanings. If we look at some other meanings of this character we
can adjust our translation a bit:
- 高 - high
- 舉- rise, go up
- 極，太過 - too (much)
- 強硬; 剛強 - strong, inflexible
- 遮蔽; 庇護- out of sight, hide
If we combine this with our dragon from 1-6 we get the picture of a dragon who without stopping goes up and up, and disappears out of sight (it is nice how sometimes all these meanings can be combined) . This is not an arrogant dragon,but a reckless dragon: a Chinese Icarus who overestimates his own powers and thereby will have hui 悔. Hui 悔 can mean
- 悔恨; 后悔 - regret, repentance
- 悔過; 改過 - correct your mistakes out of repentance
- 災咎; 災禍 - unavoidable misfortune
- 《易》卦有六爻，其上體即上三爻稱 "悔"，又稱外卦 - upper/outside trigram of a hexagram
If we stick to the image of Icarus, then I think the third meaning fits best. If you do not know your limits, or do not accept them, you will have unavoidable misfortune. Not from arrogance, but from recklessness. It are often the kind people, and not the arrogant people, who have to learn their lessons like this.
- 高 - high
- 舉- rise, go up
- 極，太過 - too (much)
- 強硬; 剛強 - strong, inflexible
- 遮蔽; 庇護- out of sight, hide
If we combine this with our dragon from 1-6 we get the picture of a dragon who without stopping goes up and up, and disappears out of sight (it is nice how sometimes all these meanings can be combined) . This is not an arrogant dragon,but a reckless dragon: a Chinese Icarus who overestimates his own powers and thereby will have hui 悔. Hui 悔 can mean
- 悔恨; 后悔 - regret, repentance
- 悔過; 改過 - correct your mistakes out of repentance
- 災咎; 災禍 - unavoidable misfortune
- 《易》卦有六爻，其上體即上三爻稱 "悔"，又稱外卦 - upper/outside trigram of a hexagram
If we stick to the image of Icarus, then I think the third meaning fits best. If you do not know your limits, or do not accept them, you will have unavoidable misfortune. Not from arrogance, but from recklessness. It are often the kind people, and not the arrogant people, who have to learn their lessons like this.
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