同人 → 革
Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 49: Revolution
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
Line 6
上九 同人于郊。无悔。
Nine at the top means: Fellowship with men in the meadow. No remorse.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
山陵四塞，遏我徑路；欲前不得，復還故處。
Mountain ridges block from four sides; our path is cut off. Wanting to advance, we cannot; we return to where we started.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and fire form Fellowship, but mountains surround on all four sides, blocking every path. Wanting to advance but unable, the traveler returns to the starting point. The verse is pure spatial frustration: an encirclement with no exit, ambition meeting geography's veto. From Fellowship to Revolution, the transformation introduces the force that can remake the landscape itself. Fire within the lake in Revolution; the noble man regulates the calendar to clarify the seasons. When the existing terrain offers no passage, Revolution does not find a path — it creates one. The traveler who returns to the old place carries with him the knowledge that the old paths are finished, and only radical change will open the way forward.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store