同人 → 頤
Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 27: Nourishment
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 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 4
九四 乘其墉。弗克攻。吉。
Nine in the fourth place means: He climbs up on his wall; he cannot attack. Good fortune.
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
子鉏執麟，《春秋》作元；陰聖將終，尼父悲心。
Zi Chu captures a qilin; the Spring and Autumn Annals begins its chronicle. The hidden sage nears his end; Master Ni's heart is stricken with grief.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and fire form Fellowship, but the verse records Fellowship's most grievous loss. Zichushang captures the qilin; the Spring and Autumn Annals begin their final reckoning. The hidden sage's era draws to its close, and Father Ni — Confucius — grieves in his heart. In 481 BC, a charioteer of the Shusun clan caught the qilin during a western hunt; Confucius recognized it and wept: 'My Way is exhausted.' This event traditionally marks where Confucius ceased writing the Annals. From Fellowship to Nourishment, the transformation shifts from cosmic communion to careful sustenance. The sage who can no longer feed the world with his teaching turns inward, guarding what remains.
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