同人 → 否
Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 12: Standstill
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初九 同人于門。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Fellowship with men at the gate. No blame.
Line 3
九三 伏戎于莽。升其高陵。三歲不興。
Nine in the third place means: He hides weapons in the thicket; He climbs the high hill in front of it. For three years he does not rise up.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
齎貝贖狸，不聽我辭；繫我虎鬚，牽不得來。
Offering cowries to ransom a wildcat; it will not heed my words. Tied to the tiger's whiskers; pull as one might, it will not come.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and fire form Fellowship, but negotiation here meets immovable resistance. One offers cowrie shells to ransom a civet cat, yet the other party refuses to listen. Then the verse escalates: grasping a tiger by its whiskers, pulling with all one's might, unable to drag it forward. The progression moves from failed trade to futile force — neither persuasion nor strength can compel what will not yield. From Fellowship to Standstill, the transformation is exact. Heaven and earth do not communicate in Standstill; the gentleman conserves virtue and avoids entanglement. Fellowship attempted and rebuffed becomes mutual withdrawal — the tiger's whiskers a perfect image of power that cannot be seized.
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