Cycles of Time

Cycles of time are the oracle's arithmetic: it counts not in neutral units but in meaningful spans, each number naming a quality of duration. Seven days is the natural period of return. The Judgment of 24 Fu - Return (The Turning Point) declares "On the seventh day comes return," and the commentary raises this to a law: "All movements are accomplished in six stages, and the seventh brings return. Thus the winter solstice, with which the decline of the year begins, comes in the seventh month after the summer solstice; so too sunrise comes in the seventh double hour after sunset." The same span consoles the loser in 51 Chên - The Arousing (Shock, Thunder), "Do not go in pursuit of them. After seven days you will get them back again," and in 63 Chi Chi - After Completion, "Do not run after it; On the seventh day you will get it."

Ten years is a fulfilled cycle. In 03 Chun - Difficulty at the Beginning the chaste maiden waits it out entire, "Ten years--then she pledges herself," and 27 I - Corners of the Mouth (Providing Nourishment) uses the same measure for a prohibition, "Do not act thus for ten years," since ten years, as Wilhelm notes there, "is a complete cycle of time."

Three years is the span of long struggle, exile, or eclipse. The prisoner of 29 K'an - The Abysmal (Water) is "Shut in between thorn-hedged prison walls: For three years one does not find the way," and in 63 Chi Chi - After Completion the Illustrious Ancestor disciplines the Devil's Country and only "After three years he conquers it." Three days, finally, bracket the turning points of reform: 18 Ku - Work on what has been spoiled (Decay) prescribes "Before the starting point, three days. After the starting point, three days," deliberation before the new beginning and vigilance after it.

Time in the Changes is thus qualitative through and through, ripe or unripe, never mere duration, and the numbers teach the same patience as the seasons: the cycle cannot be shortened, only completed.