Demon Region

The Demon Region is presented as a distant frontier against which a ruler’s forces campaign, not as a place described for its landscape or inhabitants. Its significance lies in the way the text and commentary use the expedition to test military judgment: success requires time, firm and correct action, capable leadership, and continued support from the central state.

The Campaign in the Hexagram Text

In the third line of the final hexagram, the text recalls Kâo Ȝung’s attack on the Demon Region, which took three years to subdue. The line warns against employing “small men” in such an undertaking, tying the long campaign to the need for sound appointments as well as persistence. The reference gives the location a specific place in the book’s military examples: it is the objective of an expedition whose duration makes inadequate leadership especially consequential.

A Model of Sustained Effort

A later line turns the same campaign into an exhortation. The subject is told to stir himself as though invading the Demon Region, with rewards coming to him and his troops from the great kingdom over the course of three years. The commentary explains that this comparison calls for vigorous and prolonged effort, while also stressing that such expeditions were not so remote that communication with the court ceased. Rewards, distinctions, and other forms of encouragement could reach the army, linking frontier action to continuing support from the center.

Military and Political Significance

The surrounding discussion of warfare distinguishes legitimate force from aggression: the campaign against the Demon Region functions as an example of an enterprise demanding proper conduct and reliable command, rather than a license for indiscriminate expansion. The book’s account also associates the Demon Region with Wu Ding’s expedition, described in a footnote as a famous campaign. Together, these references make the place recur as a test case for the obligations of rulers and commanders: an undertaking may be protracted, but it calls for capable personnel, firmness, and sustained provision rather than a brief assertion of force.