The Trouble Left for Later Heads

When I encounter an interpretive difficulty, I sometimes consult the I Ching itself. I approach it as a teacher and use the resulting image as a clue for further reading. In this case, I asked how to understand the sentence about the nit that goes unfelt today but troubles tomorrow’s heads.

The first consultation produced the sixth line of Guan changing into Bi. I read the sixth line of Guan as a situation in which a person has completed his own task and then turns to scrutinize others. Applied to the sentence in BI, this suggested a distinction between one person’s completed work and the continuing need for scrutiny. The specialist could finish his present assignment without the underlying matter being finished for those who followed him.

I did not initially grasp the implication. A later consultation produced the third line of Gu changing into Meng. In my reading of Gu, Gen over Xun can describe an occupation coming to an end: Xun is withdrawal, and Gen is the party bringing its work to a close. The same structure can also indicate failure on Gen’s side.

The interior relation of Dui and Zhen supplied the missing connection. Dui can mean escape and young insects, while Zhen can mean forward movement. In the BI imagery, the combination suggests that the specialist has finished while some young lice have escaped. The transformed Meng adds the image of incubation and hatching. What escaped as an undeveloped beginning could later become an active problem.

The two consultations helped me distinguish a completed inspection from a permanently secured result. A head can appear satisfactory after combing while nits remain concealed. The later heads in the sentence are those who encounter the developed consequences of what the earlier operation left behind. Returning to BI’s own images then made the opening statement’s contrast between present success and future difficulty intelligible.