There is a co-incidence last Friday evening. When a government leader called for a united people to fight uncertainty and a better future, the Egyptian President also in the particular evening announced his resignation. The Egyptians have united to call for the resignation of their President, while our leader is also calling for unity of the people to face the future.
So, what is what? Which is which? Should unity come from the bottom or the top?
If you have basic knowledge of Yi Jing, you will realise that a good or better hexagram usually happened when the lower trigram is supporting the upper trigram, or the inner trigram provides support to the outer trigram. Yi Jing principles are the rulers must listen to the people, and in this case the rulers or government must be in the position of lower or inner trigram. Rulers or government must position themselves at a position lower than the people. At inner or lower trigram position, rulers or government are positioning themselves at a humble place and wiling to care and concern about people. In addition, they are willing to accept criticism so that they can improve the livelihood of the general public.
If you look at Tunisia or Egypt, the rulers and government have placed themselves above the people. They are occupying position above the people (outer or upper trigram) so when they call for unity, people just ignore them. Instead, people united to call for a change. This leads to a revolution which indicates a bad or unfavourable hexagram. Once the people call for unity, the rulers or government will fall. This is because there is no support from the people.
Mengzi (孟子) in one of the discussions with King of Qi talked about music for all. Qi King liked music but the popular ones. Mengzi told him it did not matter whether the music was popular or ancient. However, it was important that he extended the availability of music to everyone. Mengzi asked the King which was better a better situation, a person or a group of people enjoying music. The king replied a group. When comparing to a group to a whole nation, which was better. The king understood the meaning and replied that a whole nation enjoying music was better. Hence, music must be enjoyed by all people, not only the King or a group of people. The famous phrase “与民同乐Yu min tong le” – enjoying music with the people was initiated by Mengzi.
Mengzi furthers the case with an example of a park. The King could create a park but if it was a private park for his own entertainment then it became a danger zone for the people. Whoever caught or killed something in the private park, he or she would be in trouble. So, when the private park owned by the King became bigger and bigger, the people would feel more and more danger and the park became a pitfall for people as the chances of making mistakes also increase. The solution is to make the park public.
So, when our leaders call for unity, are they moving towards the direction of music for all and free public park or enjoying music lonely and making own private park? Are they opening up the Istana on some selected dates in a year or like Ma of Taiwan make it a public and tourist attraction for his Presidential palace?
In Yi Jing, the unity force or call must come from the people, not the leader. The leader can call for unity but without the support of the people, the unity will be a failure. Nevertheless, there are ways to change to a better hexagram. For example, giving goodies before the election, providing allowances and incentives in the annual budget, support the poor in economic downturn, etc. These polices can help to change the government hexagram to a better one or move the position of a “yao” (broken or unbroken lines) to a favourable or better one. But as in Egypt and Tunisia, there is a limit to all the policies, once you reach the limit, even you are at the “good lucky” hexagram, once you reach the sixth yao, you will have to start again. No one can guarantee you, you will be as lucky as before.
So, there is people power.
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