On Stems That Are Timely Yet Not Prosperous, Untimely Yet Not Weak (De Shi Bu Wang, Shi Shi Bu Ruo)

Prosperous Is Not Strong

This chapter separates two pairs of words that most readers slur together. To obtain one's season is to be prosperous and to lose it is to decline; to have many partisans is to be strong and to have few is to be weak. A stem in its own month can still be drained and weak, and a stem in a hostile month can still be rooted and strong. Shen's test is concrete: count the partisans, look for roots in the branches, and remember that a single storage branch outweighs several friendly stems in the heavens.