泰 → 晉
Hexagram 11: Peace → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6).
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 3
九三 无平不陂。无往不復。艱貞无咎。勿恤其孚。于食有福。
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。
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。
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
Yilin Verse
登几上輿，駕駟南遊；合縱散衡，燕秦以強。
Ascending the carriage platform, mounting the four-horse chariot, traveling south. Uniting the vertical alliance, dissolving the horizontal; Yan and Qin thereby grow strong.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth above heaven, Peace's diplomatic order takes shape. One ascends the chariot platform, harnesses a four-horse team, and journeys south on a grand tour. Then the verse invokes the great Warring States stratagem: the Vertical Alliance unites weaker states against Qin, scattering the Horizontal Alliance, and thereby Yan and Qin are strengthened. This alludes to the diplomatic campaigns of strategists like Su Qin, who forged multi-state coalitions to balance power. From Peace to Progress, fire emerges above the earth — the gentleman illuminates his own virtue. The transformation shows how diplomatic alignment creates conditions for genuine advancement: alliance precedes ascent.
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