Approach of Authority

Approach of Authority, called Lin, is Hexagram 19, whose image of two firm lines advancing toward four yielding ones defines authority as a force moving toward those it governs. The text promises great progress and success, but makes firm correctness a condition of that promise and warns that adversity will come in the eighth month. The hexagram thus joins effective approach to the discipline of anticipating its decline.

Meaning and Structure

The commentary rejects the explanation of Lin as simply meaning “great.” It instead interprets the name as the approach of authority: to inspect, comfort, or rule. The figure gives this interpretation a visible structure: two strong, undivided lines move upward against four weak lines above them. Their advance accounts for the assurance that their action can be powerful and successful, while the relation between the lines makes the hexagram an image of authority in motion rather than a static possession of rank.

That power is not self-justifying. Its action must be governed by rectitude and by caution grounded in the changing character of conditions and events. The promise of progress therefore contains its own qualification: authority succeeds through a rightly directed approach, not merely through strength.

The Text's Promise and Warning

The statement associated with Lin predicts great progress and success, provided that firm correctness is advantageous; it adds that the eighth month will bring evil. The warning places a limit inside the favorable forecast. Advancement may be powerful, but the conditions that sustain it do not remain fixed, and success cannot be treated as permanent.

The commentary connects the concluding warning with the idea that advancing power will decay before long. It also preserves a calendrical explanation offered by Lû Kăn-khî: the sun and day symbolize Yang, while the moon symbolizes Yin; eight is associated with the smaller Yin and seven with the smaller Yang. On this account, the eighth month marks the coming of Yin, while the seventh day marks the coming of Yang. The Khang-hsî editors regard this as the best explanation of the wording and caution against seeking alternative interpretations that would make expressions such as “3 days,” “3 years,” and “10 years” unintelligible. Lin is identified as the hexagram of the twelfth month, placing its image of approach within a larger scheme of recurring change.

Authority as a Changing Relation

The hexagram's image is relational: the strong lines advance toward the yielding lines, and the commentary reads that arrangement as authority approaching those below it. Inspection, comfort, and rule are distinct aspects of this movement, not interchangeable labels for force. The approach can be effective, but its effectiveness remains answerable to rectitude and caution.

The eighth-month warning prevents the image from becoming a simple celebration of power. The same movement that brings progress also belongs to a changing sequence in which influence recedes. Read together, the advancing lines, the condition of firm correctness, and the forecast of decline present authority as consequential but temporary: it must act well while its moment lasts and remain alert to the turn already implicit in success.