乾 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 1: The Creative → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5).
Line 2
九二 見龍在田。利見大人。
Nine in the second place means: Dragon appearing in the field. It furthers one to see the great man.
Line 3
九三 君子終日乾乾。夕惕若厲。无咎。
Nine in the third place means: All day long the superior man is creatively active. At nightfall his mind is still beset with cares. Danger. No blame.
Line 5
九五 飛龍在天。利見大人。
Nine in the fifth place means: Flying dragon in the heavens. It furthers one to see the great man.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
堅冰黃鳥，啼哀悲愁，不見甘粒，但觀藜蒿，數驚鷙鳥，為我心憂。
Hard ice, a yellow bird, crying in sorrow and grief. Seeing no sweet grain, only goosefoot and wormwood. Startled time and again by raptors; this makes my heart heavy.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Hard ice, a yellow bird crying in sorrow — no sweet grain to be found, only bitter weeds. Predatory hawks appear repeatedly, filling the heart with dread. The yellow bird echoes the Shijing ode of exile from the Xiao Ya, where a displaced person laments being unwelcome in a foreign land. From Creative to Biting Through, lightning and thunder enforce the law — the ancient kings used this energy to clarify punishments. The verse shows the exile's perspective: one who has run afoul of the system finds no nourishment, only frozen ground and circling raptors. Biting Through bites through obstruction, but for the one being bitten, the experience is terror and starvation.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store