乾 → 家人
Hexagram 1: The Creative → Hexagram 37: The Family
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 4).
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 4
九四 或躍在淵。无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Wavering flight over the depths. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
三女求夫，伺候山隅，不見復關，長思歎憂。
Three women seek husbands, waiting and watching at the mountain’s bend. They do not see the returning carriage; they sigh in long sorrow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Three women seek husbands, waiting at the mountain's edge, but they never see the watchtower gate — an echo of the Shijing ode 'Mang,' where the abandoned woman watches for her lover: 'Not seeing Fuguan, my tears stream down.' Longing and sighing fill the days. From Creative to The Family, wind emerges from fire — words carry substance and actions hold constancy. Yet the verse shows the family that has not yet formed: the women wait, the men never arrive, and the household remains an unrealized aspiration. Jia Ren's ideal of enduring domestic bonds is presented here in negative: desire for family without fulfillment, the wind that should issue from hearth-fire blowing instead through an empty doorway.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store