乾 → 艮
Hexagram 1: The Creative → Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
Line 1
初九 潛龍勿用。
Nine at the beginning means: Hidden dragon. Do not act.
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.
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
民怯城惡，姦人所伏。寇賊大至，入我郛郭，妻子俘獲。
The people are timid, the walls decayed; a hiding place for villains. Bandits arrive in force, entering our outer walls; wives and children are taken captive.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
The people are timid and the city walls crumbling; treacherous men lurk within. Bandits arrive in force, pouring into the outer walls, and wives and children are taken captive. From Creative to Keeping Still, doubled mountains should represent impenetrable stillness — thinking without overstepping one's position. Yet the verse reveals the catastrophic failure of stillness without strength: walls too weak to hold, defenders too frightened to fight. Gen's stillness becomes paralysis. The mountain that should have stopped invasion instead collapses under assault. When keeping still means only passive immobility rather than disciplined containment, the enemy rushes through the gaps. Stillness without substance is simply stagnation awaiting the blow.
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