泰 → 咸
Hexagram 11: Peace → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
Line 1
初九 拔茅茹。以其彙。征吉。
Nine at the beginning means: When ribbon grass is pulled up, the sod comes with it. Each according to his kind. Undertakings bring good fortune.
Line 2
九二 包荒。用馮河。不遐遺。朋亡。得尚于中行。
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 4
六四 翩翩。不富以其鄰。不戒以孚。
Six in the fourth place means: He flutters down, not boasting of his wealth, Together with his neighbor, Guileless and sincere.
Line 5
六五 帝乙歸妹。以祉元吉。
Six in the fifth place means: The sovereign I Gives his daughter in marriage. This brings blessing And supreme good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
老楊日衰，條多枯枝；爵級不進，日下摧隤。
The old willow daily declines; many branches wither and die. Rank and station do not advance; day by day, it crumbles and falls.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth above heaven, Peace declines into senescence. An old poplar weakens day by day, its branches increasingly bare and dry. Official rank does not advance, and with each passing day one sinks lower, broken and diminished. The aging tree is a metaphor for a career that has peaked and entered irreversible decline — no new growth, only the progressive loss of what once flourished. From Peace to Influence, the lake rests atop the mountain, and the gentleman empties himself to receive others. The transformation offers a counterpoint: where the verse laments decline, Influence suggests that hollowing out can itself become receptivity, if one accepts the emptying rather than resisting it.
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