The Mother Bird Must Not Force the Shell

A second inquiry concerned the opening statement of MENG: “Do not peck to seek the chicks.” The consultation produced the sixth line of Bi changing into Guan, with the judgment “The top of the comb breaks off. Disaster.”

Bi concerns selecting a target out of a larger whole. Its sixth line shows that act of selection failing. Applied to incubation, the desired target is the chick within the egg. The mother bird’s attempt to obtain it by acting from outside is analogous to the inspector trying to extract the element on which his attention is fixed.

Guan contains Xun above the overlapping Gen. Xun indicates deterioration and failure; Gen represents the shell and the mother’s protective role. The combination can therefore show both the shell being damaged and the protecting side failing in its purpose. Breaking the covering is not sufficient to establish that the chick has been successfully brought forth.

This reading clarified the direction of the advice. The mother should not force the result by pecking from outside. Her work is to sustain incubation until the chick can perform the movement of emergence. The image of failed extraction in BI helped explain why MENG assigns the decisive action to the developing life rather than to the impatient protector.