The small departs, the great approaches

The small departs, the great approaches is the judgment of Hexagram Eleven, T'ai, Peace, in the I Ching, the ancient Chinese oracle that pervades Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. In the novel, this judgment is cast by Frank Frink at a pivotal moment when he is deciding whether to follow Ed McCarthy's advice and start his own creative jewelry business. The hexagram's favorable judgment, promising that 'the small departs, the great approaches' and bringing 'Good fortune. Success,' is immediately complicated by a moving line at the top that warns of doom, creating a profound tension between hope and catastrophe that defines Frink's venture and echoes the novel's larger themes of chance, fate, and the possibility of change in a world ruled by the Axis powers.

The Oracle and Its Role in the Novel

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is a five-thousand-year-old Chinese divination text that serves as a central spiritual and philosophical guide for several characters in The Man in the High Castle. It is consulted through the casting of yarrow stalks or coins to produce a hexagram, a figure of six lines that represents a particular situation or 'Moment' in time. The book's wisdom is believed to be alive and responsive to the querent's deepest questions, often revealing truths beyond the conscious mind. In the novel, the oracle is used by Frank Frink, his ex-wife Juliana, and the Japanese official Nobusuke Tagomi, each seeking guidance in a world where the Axis powers have won World War II. The oracle's pronouncements are taken with the utmost seriousness, and its judgments and lines are quoted and interpreted throughout the narrative, providing a framework for understanding the characters' fates and the novel's philosophical concerns.

Frank Frink's Consultation and the Casting of the Hexagram

Frank Frink, a recently fired metalworker who has been told he is too good at copying to create original art, consults the oracle in the lounge of the W-M Corporation, where he has gone to retrieve his tools. Following a conversation with the shop foreman Ed McCarthy, who has urged him to start a business making original, handcrafted jewelry, Frink writes his question on the back of an envelope: 'Should I attempt to go into the creative private business outlined to me just now?' He then throws the coins, a method of divination that is quicker than the traditional yarrow stalks. The first three lines are all Sevens, forming the bottom trigram Ch'ien, the Creative. The fourth and fifth lines are Eights, yin lines. Frink realizes that if the sixth line is also yin, he will have Hexagram Eleven, T'ai, Peace, which has a very favorable judgment. His hands tremble as he rattles the coins, knowing that a yang line would instead produce Hexagram Twenty-six, Ta Ch'u, the Taming Power of the Great. He throws the coins and gets a Six, a yin line, confirming Hexagram Eleven.

The Judgment and Its Immediate Meaning

Opening the book, Frink reads the judgment for Hexagram Eleven: 'PEACE. The small departs. The great approaches. Good fortune. Success.' This is an auspicious omen, suggesting that the small, petty concerns are leaving and something great is coming. For Frink, this seems to confirm that he should follow McCarthy's advice and open his own business. The judgment speaks directly to his situation: he is leaving behind his old life as a copyist and approaching a new, creative venture. The 'small' that departs could be his old self-doubt, his fear, or his past as a forger of historical artifacts. The 'great' that approaches is the opportunity to create something original and meaningful. The judgment's promise of 'Good fortune. Success' is a powerful encouragement for a man who has just lost his job and his sense of purpose.

The Moving Line and the Ominous Warning

However, the hexagram is not static. Frink has one moving line, a Six at the top, which transforms the hexagram and introduces a note of profound unease. He turns the page and reads the line's text: 'The wall falls back into the moat. Use no army now. Make your commands known within your own town. Perseverance brings humiliation.' The commentary is even more dire: 'The change alluded to in the middle of the hexagram has begun to take place. The wall of the town sinks back into the moat from which it was dug. The hour of doom is at hand.' Frink is horrified, recognizing this as one of the most dismal lines in the entire book. The favorable judgment of the hexagram and the catastrophic warning of the moving line seem to contradict each other, leaving Frink in a state of confusion and dread. He wonders if he has 'pressed two buttons at once' and received a 'schlimazl's eye view of reality.'

The Tension Between Hope and Doom

Frink's interpretation of this paradox is crucial to his character and the novel's themes. He decides that the judgment refers to his personal venture, the jewelry business, which will bring good fortune. The moving line, however, refers to something deeper, a future catastrophe that is probably not connected to his business at all. He thinks of a Third World War, with hydrogen bombs falling like hail, and wonders if he has somehow set it in motion. He concludes that the line is for all mankind, a warning of an inevitable doom that will come regardless of his actions. This realization leads him to a stoic acceptance: 'Fate will poleax us eventually anyhow, but I have my job in the meantime; I must use my mind, my hands.' The oracle, in this reading, does not offer a simple answer but a complex vision of a world where personal hope and cosmic catastrophe coexist. This tension mirrors the novel's own structure, where the characters' individual struggles for meaning and dignity unfold against the backdrop of a totalitarian world order that seems destined for destruction.

The Aftermath and the Hexagram's Significance

Frink's decision to follow the oracle's advice and go into business with McCarthy leads to the creation of Edfrank Custom Jewelry. The venture initially fails to find buyers, and Frink is arrested on a trumped-up charge of bunco, a scheme orchestrated by his former employer Wyndam-Matson. He is held for the German consul, who wants to try him under German law as a Jew. His release is a 'miracle,' a fluke that he cannot understand. The hexagram's promise of 'the small departs, the great approaches' is never fully realized in a conventional sense; the business does not bring immediate wealth, and Frink's life remains precarious. Yet the oracle's guidance has a profound effect on him. It gives him the courage to act, to create, and to face his fate with a measure of equanimity. The judgment of Hexagram Eleven thus becomes a symbol of the novel's central concern with the possibility of change and renewal in a world that seems fixed and oppressive. It suggests that even in the darkest of times, there is a potential for something new to emerge, even if that potential is always shadowed by the threat of doom. The phrase 'the small departs, the great approaches' resonates throughout the novel, capturing the fragile hope that the characters cling to as they navigate their lives under the rule of the Axis powers.