How to Adjust When Things Go Wrong? See How Ancient People Used the Wisdom of the *Pi* Hexagram to Solve Travel Difficulties

During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a scholar named Zhang Sheng. Before the Qingming Festival, he planned to invite a friend for a spring outing in the suburbs. But a few days before departure, a string of trivial troubles befell him: his page boy caught a cold, the reserved carriage was borrowed by another family, and even while packing his luggage, he knocked over his inkstone onto his new clothes. Frowning, Zhang Sheng flipped through the *I Ching*. The more he read, the more he felt this trip was doomed. He simply cast a hexagram based on the current time, drawing the base hexagram *Pi (Standstill)* of Heaven and Earth, with the first line changing, and the transformed hexagram *Wu Wang (Innocence)* of Heaven and Thunder.

As soon as the hexagram was drawn, an old gentleman who taught nearby leaned over to look. Stroking his beard, he smiled and said, "This is a typical case of a rough start, but it may not be a bad thing." Zhang Sheng quickly bowed and asked how to adjust when things went wrong, and whether he should simply cancel the trip. The old gentleman waved his hand and first explained the hexagram's meaning: "The base hexagram is *Pi*, with Qian (Heaven) above and Kun (Earth) below. Yang qi rises while yin qi descends; the two energies cannot meet, so naturally there are many obstacles—just like the situation these days before your trip, everything gets stuck, as if something is tripping you up."

"But the moving line is the first six, and its line statement says: 'Pull up the茅草 by its roots, taking its cluster with it; divination of this is auspicious and leads to success.'" The old gentleman pointed to the line statement and explained to Zhang Sheng: "Look, when pulling茅草, you have to pull it all up by the roots, not yank one here and one there. The same goes for traveling. You've been doing things haphazardly lately—booking a carriage one moment, packing clothes the next—so of course it's chaotic. If you sort out the preparations in order and carry them out one by one, things will naturally smooth out." Zhang Sheng thought it over and realized it was true; he had been doing whatever came to mind these days without any plan, no wonder he kept running into obstacles everywhere.

The old gentleman continued, "The mutual hexagram is *Guan (Viewing)* of Wind and Earth, which means don't rush on the road, but look around more. If you keep thinking 'I must reach that scenic spot' or 'I must eat at that restaurant', you'll easily get upset; walk slowly, stop longer when you see beautiful scenery, and you'll have unexpected joys instead. The transformed hexagram is *Wu Wang (Innocence)*, which most warns against random changes mid-journey—don't change your route just because you hear somewhere else is fun halfway. Stick to the original plan, and you'll be sure to return safely."

After listening, Zhang Sheng felt much more at ease. He then asked how to deal with difficult problems, saying he couldn't just wait for obstacles to come his way. The old gentleman gave him several practical suggestions: First, arrange all luggage, routes, and carriages properly three days in advance. Make a list for everything, and cross off each item as you finish it—don't panic and look for things right before leaving. Second, don't pack the schedule too tight. Visit one place in the morning, and find a teahouse to sit in the afternoon; don't make yourself more tired than if you were taking the imperial examination. Third, if you really encounter something uncertain, ask older people or local yamen runners for information, don't just brood on it yourself. The Qian hexagram corresponds to elders; speak up more when in trouble, and there will always be someone willing to help.

Zhang Sheng followed the old gentleman's advice and arranged everything one by one. On the day of departure, things went smoothly as expected. Although when he arrived in the suburbs, he found the originally planned peach blossom forest was so trampled by tourists that there was no place to step, he didn't get annoyed. He walked along the ridge to the side and came across a wild apricot forest, full of blooming flowers with no crowds vying for space. He and his friend drank half a pot of wine under the trees and wrote several poems, having a more enjoyable time than the original itinerary had promised.

In fact, the hexagrams in the *I Ching* never pass a death sentence on people. They are more like an experienced old man, pointing out the pitfalls you might encounter on the road in advance. What to do when facing choices? Don't back down just because of the small setbacks in front of you. First, make solid preparations, then move forward step by step. Those obstacles that seem so frustrating will turn into scenery along the way as you keep walking.