乾 → 巽
Hexagram 1: The Creative → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 4).
Line 1
初九 潛龍勿用。
Nine at the beginning means: Hidden dragon. Do not act.
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
出門逢惡，與禍為怨。更相擊刺，傷我手端。
Going out the gate, meeting evil; making enemies with misfortune. Exchanging blows and stabs; my hand is wounded.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Stepping out the door one meets hostility; trouble becomes an enemy. Mutual thrusting and striking ensue, wounding the tips of the hands. From Creative to The Gentle, doubled wind should be the subtlest of forces — the ruler issuing commands that penetrate gradually. Yet the verse shows what happens when heaven's directness meets Xun's world of indirection: blunt force in a context that demands finesse leads to mutual harm. The hand injuries suggest a fight at close quarters, clumsy and self-defeating. Xun counsels issuing orders and following through with gentle persistence; this person instead swings fists. When the Creative refuses to adapt to the Gentle's method, even the exit from one's own door becomes a battlefield.
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