Yarrow / Source Notes / 2026-07-17
Yarrow source note · 2026-07-17
A source-first reading note for Hexagram 7, Shi (The Army), with a reference translation, trigram frame, and one reversible observation practice.
The Army
The lower trigram is 坎 (水), associated in the bundled corpus with 陷; the upper trigram is 坤 (地), associated with 顺. Read the lower trigram as the inner or starting field and the upper trigram as the outward field before turning the pattern into advice.
THE ARMY. The host. The divination concerning the marching of troops shows that when a worthy elder commands the army, there is good fortune and no blame.
See the original-text and authority layers in the complete catalog entry.
The hexagram Shi, with Kun above and Kan below, symbolizes a single yang line as elder leading a multitude on campaign. In military affairs, internally one must maintain strict discipline, and externally one must have just cause for the campaign. Thus one must hold to the way of righteousness and uprightness in order to govern the world through "Shi." The Sunzi Bingfa says: "War is the great affair of the state, the ground of life and death, the way of survival or destruction." The Laozi says: "Weapons are inauspicious instruments," to be "used only when there is no alternative.
The lower trigram is 坎 (水), associated in the bundled corpus with 陷; the upper trigram is 坤 (地), associated with 顺. Read the lower trigram as the inner or starting field and the upper trigram as the outward field before turning the pattern into advice.
Copy one concrete verb, condition, or image from the reference translation for Hexagram 7. Name one place where it is observable in the situation you are examining. Then choose one small step you can reverse and write the condition that would make you review it.
Do not turn The Army into a personality label, a guaranteed event, or a verdict about another person. The translation and trigram frame are source layers to examine, not an instruction to surrender judgment.
The reference translation and context are drawn from Yarrow's bundled structured Zhouyi authority layer. Yarrow keeps that layer separate from optional modern reflection. This page does not claim that Hexagram 7 was cast for your question.