噬嗑

Hexagram 11: Peace → Hexagram 21: Biting Through

Peace
Earth / Heaven
噬嗑
Biting Through
Fire / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).

Line 2

九二 包荒。用馮河。不遐遺。朋亡。得尚于中行。

bāoembrace
huāngthe wilderness
yòngpractical
píngto cross
river
avoid
xiáaloofness
neglect
péngcompanions
wángimpermanent
learn
shàngthe value
in
zhōngbalanced
xíngaction

Nine in the second place means: Bearing with the uncultured in gentleness, Fording the river with resolution, Not neglecting what is distant, Not regarding one's companions: Thus one may manage to walk in the middle.

Line 3

九三 无平不陂。无往不復。艱貞无咎。勿恤其孚。于食有福。

there is not
pínglevel
without
slope
there is no
wǎnggoing
without
return
jiāndifficult
zhēnto persist
without
jiùmistake
do not
worry
these
certainties
in
shínourishment
yǒufind
happiness

Nine in the third place means: No plain not followed by a slope. No going not followed by a return. He who remains persevering in danger Is without blame. Do not complain about this truth; Enjoy the good fortune you still possess.

Line 4

六四 翩翩。不富以其鄰。不戒以孚。

piānfluttering
piānfluttering
no
enrichment
making use of
one's
línneighbors
avoid
jièlimit
the ways
trust

Six in the fourth place means: He flutters down, not boasting of his wealth, Together with his neighbor, Guileless and sincere.

Line 6

上六 城復于隍。勿用師。自邑告命。貞吝。

chéngthe city walls
falls back
into
huángthe moat (a dry ditch at the base of a wall)
do not
yòngengage
shīthe military
in
home town
gàoannounce
mìngthe decree
zhēnto persist
lìnembarrassing

Six at the top means: The wall falls back into the moat. Use no army now. Make your commands known within your own town. Perseverance brings humiliation.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramEarth FireThe Receptive → The Clinging
Lower TrigramHeaven ThunderThe Creative → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

涸陰沍寒,常冰不溫;令人墮怠,雹大為災。

Congealed yin, bitter cold; eternal ice that never warms. It makes one sluggish and idle; great hail becomes a disaster.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Earth above heaven, Peace frozen into extremity. The yin force congeals into bitter cold, ice persists without thaw, and lethargy overtakes all activity. Then hailstones descend as calamity. This is Peace inverted into its meteorological opposite: instead of the warm mingling of heaven and earth, cold solidifies and nothing circulates. The perpetual chill (常陽 here likely a scribal variant for 常陰, as the context demands cold not heat, or it may refer to excessive yang becoming drought) paralyzes initiative. From Peace to Biting Through, fire and thunder combine to enforce law. The transformation suggests that when stagnation reaches its extreme, only decisive judicial force can shatter the ice.

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