Also known as Limitation, Articulating, Restraint, Regulation.
The character 節 means the joint of a bamboo stalk, the node that divides it into sections and gives it strength. Hexagram 60 is about limits: knowing where to stop, setting a budget, keeping a rhythm. Good limits make life possible. Limits that are too harsh can't be kept.
The figure
Water over Lake. A lake can only hold so much; pour in more and it overflows. It is the reverse of hexagram 59.
The judgment
It goes through. Limits that hurt cannot be kept.
Limits bring success, but only bearable ones. Rules that are too strict break down.
The image
Water over the marsh, and only so much of it will hold. Set the measures, and talk about how people should behave.
Wise people set measures and examine what's right, so that everyone knows where the edges are.
The six lines
Counted from the bottom, the way the figure is built when you cast it.
- Line 1, at the bottom. You stay inside your own door and courtyard. Holding back is no mistake now.
- Line 2. You stay inside your gate when it's time to go out. Missing the moment goes badly.
- Line 3. You don't keep any limits, and you'll have cause to sigh. The fault is your own.
- Line 4. Limits you accept easily. Success.
- Line 5. Limits that feel sweet, because you keep them yourself first. It goes well; going forward earns respect.
- Line 6, at the top. Limits that are bitter. Holding to them goes badly, though the regret passes.
Reading it for a question
Hexagram 60 asks you to set sensible limits: on time, money, effort, commitments. Choose ones you can live with, keep them yourself and know when a limit has become a cage.