Biting Through
Judgment
— I Ching · classical
亨。利用狱。
Decisively cutting through the obstacle leads to success, and favors putting fair judgment into practice.
Image
— Great Image
雷电，噬嗑，先王以明罚敕法。
Thunder and lightning together: this is the image of Biting Through. Seeing this, the rulers of old made their penalties clear and their laws exact.
Six Lines
— Bottom to top
Modern Readings
— Interdisciplinary
Career & Management
Removing toxic actors, hard-line collection on bad debts, breaking monopolies. No sentimentality — apply rules with full force.
Psychology & Cognition
On the bottleneck issue, summon the 'tenacity that does not let go'. Remove what blocks the bite.
Decision Guidance
Small punishment at the first transgression (line 1) prevents the irredeemable ruin (line 6). Clarify the law and apply it.
Integrated Reading
— Structure · timing · relations
Biting Through places The Clinging / Fire above The Arousing / Thunder. Read the lower trigram as the emerging ground and the upper trigram as the field, pressure, or constraint it must answer. The core theme is Biting through · Justice · Removing the obstacle. Relations: the opposite hexagram shows the shadow/complement (The Well); the inverse shows the other-side view (Grace); the nuclear hexagram shows the hidden internal mechanism (Obstruction).
Line Path
Line path: Initial Nine → Six in the second → Six in the third → Nine in the fourth → Six in the fifth → Nine at the top. Read from bottom to top to see how the situation emerges, develops, crosses thresholds, and resolves.
Reflection Prompt
Am I acting from the proper position of Biting Through, or am I being pulled by over-punishing or avoiding the real obstruction? What is the smallest reversible next move that respects the timing?
Western Parallels
— Cross-cultural
James Q. Wilson's 'broken windows' theory; behavioral economics on swift, certain, small punishment (Mark Kleiman's 'When Brute Force Fails'); the legal maxim 'justice delayed is justice denied'; Robespierre's terror as the cautionary opposite.
· English renderings and modern readings are original editorial writing, cross-checked against public-domain and classical commentary lineages.
· Hexagram Cast does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· Modern inputs are reproducible; traditional casts can be audited line by line from the stored coin/yarrow trace.