Hexagram 40: Deliverance

John Constable painted an English countryside scene in 1821 showing a hay cart fording the River Stour in Suffolk. Sunlight breaks through clouds over the rural landscape where agricultural work proceeds peacefully. The cart crosses shallow water while a farmhouse sits on the far bank, dogs rest in the foreground, and the sky opens into brightness after rain. Constable renders the scene with precise attention to weather and light, capturing the specific clarity that follows a storm's passage. The painting depicts ordinary labor resuming, obstacles that have cleared, the return to productive work after impediment.

This is Xiè (解), Deliverance. The character shows a knife cutting through bound cords, the releasing of what was constrained. Ancient diviners saw this configuration when Thunder (Zhèn) sits above Water (Kǎn)—arousing movement breaking through danger and difficulty, the activation that disperses accumulated tension. Constable's landscape embodies this structure: the storm has passed (water subsiding), normal activity resumes (thunder's movement returning), the cart crosses water that no longer presents danger. The painting captures what practitioners described as "tension released, obstruction removed."

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The Judgment text speaks with careful timing: "Deliverance. The southwest furthers. If there is no longer anything where one has to go, return brings good fortune. If there is still something where one has to go, hastening brings good fortune." Zhou Dynasty court diviners understood that deliverance requires recognizing when obstacles have truly cleared versus when remnants remain. The text distinguishes between two conditions: when problems have dissolved completely, return to normal life quickly; when residual difficulties persist, move decisively to complete their removal. Ancient commentators noted this hexagram appeared after sieges lifted, after droughts broke, after conflicts resolved—moments when constraint suddenly releases.

The Image Text reveals the mechanism: "Thunder and rain set in: the image of Deliverance. Thus the superior man pardons mistakes and forgives misdeeds." The storm cleanses through its passage, just as deliverance often requires releasing what accumulated during difficulty. Constable's painting shows England's agricultural rhythm restored after interruption, the simple cart crossing now-peaceful water. In the I-Ching's sequence, Xiè follows Jiǎn (Obstruction): after encountering what cannot be overcome, conditions shift and passage becomes possible. The painting celebrates not dramatic triumph but quiet resumption, the profound relief of ordinary life proceeding after its suspension. Deliverance manifests not as explosion but as clearing, not as victory but as return to productive work under open sky.