Hexagram 12: Standstill → Hexagram 55: Abundance

Standstill
Heaven / Earth
Abundance
Thunder / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5, 6).

Line 1

初六 拔茅茹。以其彙。貞吉。亨。

pulling
máothatch
by the roots
thereby
uprooting its
huìwhole cluster
zhēnpersistence
promising
hēngfulfilling

Six at the beginning means: When ribbon grass is pulled up, the sod comes with it. Each according to his kind. Perseverance brings good fortune and success.

Line 3

六三 包羞。

bāoembracing
xiūthe shame

Six in the third place means: They bear shame.

Line 5

九五 休否。大人吉。其亡其亡。繫于苞桑。

xiūretiring from
the separation
mature
rénhuman being
promise
this
wángpasses
that
wángpasses
secured
with
bāothe seedlings
sāngof mulberry

Nine in the fifth place means: Standstill is giving way. Good fortune for the great man. "What if it should fail, what if it should fail?" In this way he ties it to a cluster of mulberry shoots.

Line 6

上九 傾否。先否後喜。

qīngoverturn
the separation
xiānbefore
separation
hòuafter
rejoicing

Nine at the top means: The standstill comes to an end. First standstill, then good fortune.

Trigram Changes

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

Yilin Verse

賦斂重數,政為民賊;杼軸空盡,家去其室。

Taxes and levies heaped and redoubled; governance becomes the people's thief. Loom shuttles and axles emptied out; households abandon their homes.

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

Commentary

Heaven and earth refuse to communicate as taxes are levied again and again, governance becoming the people's enemy. Looms are emptied to their last thread, and families abandon their homes. From Standstill to Abundance, Pi's sealed world meets thunder and lightning together — Feng's image of fullness so complete it must be carefully administered. Yet the verse shows Feng's dark mirror: abundance for the state means exhaustion for the people. The repeated levies drain the looms dry, and when the weaving is gone, the household dissolves. Feng warns that abundance cannot be maintained at noon forever — 'the sun at midday begins to set.' Here the ruler has tried to hold noon by force, stripping the people bare to sustain an illusion of plenty, until the homes themselves stand empty.

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