同人 → 遯
Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 33: Retreat
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).
Line 1
初九 同人于門。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Fellowship with men at the gate. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
安和泰山，福祿屢臻；雖有豺虎，不能危身。
Peaceful as Mount Tai; blessings and bounty arrive in abundance. Though wolves and tigers roam, they cannot endanger one's person.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and fire form Fellowship, and here the communion produces imperturbable safety. Settled and at peace like Mount Tai, blessings arrive again and again. Though jackals and tigers prowl, they cannot endanger the body. Mount Tai — the Eastern Sacred Mountain, holiest of the Five Peaks — serves as the image of immovable stability, its authority so absolute that predators shrink before it. From Fellowship to Retreat, the transformation reveals the paradox of strength through withdrawal. Heaven above the mountain in Retreat, the noble man distances himself from the petty without malice. The one who retreats to the mountain's summit need not fear the beasts below — elevation itself is the shield.
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