同人 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
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.
Line 5
九五 同人先號咷而後笑。大師克相遇。
Nine in the fifth place means: Men bound in fellowship first weep and lament, But afterward they laugh. After great struggles they succeed in meeting.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
兩金相擊，勇氣鈞敵；終日大戰，不破不缺。
Two metals clash; courage and strength are evenly matched. Fighting all day long; neither breaks nor yields.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and fire form Fellowship, but here fellowship is the fellowship of combatants. Two metals clash — courage and strength evenly matched — fighting all day long without either breaking or cracking. The duel is perfectly balanced: neither side yields, neither side falls. The image is not tragedy but testament to the quality of both fighters. From Fellowship to Biting Through, the transformation introduces a decisive force into the stalemate. Lightning and thunder in Biting Through; the ancient kings clarified punishments and corrected the law. What endless matched combat cannot resolve, judicial clarity can: the teeth that bite through the obstacle between the jaws end what brute equality could not.
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