大有 → 坤
Hexagram 14: Great Possession → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 无交害。匪咎。艱則无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: No relationship with what is harmful; There is no blame in this. If one remains conscious of difficulty, One remains without blame.
Line 2
九二 大車以載。有攸往。无咎。
Nine in the second place means: A big wagon for loading. One may undertake something. No blame.
Line 3
九三 公用亨于天子。小人弗克 。
Nine in the third place means: A prince offers it to the Son of Heaven. A petty man cannot do this.
Line 4
九四 匪其彭。无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: He makes a difference Between himself and his neighbor. No blame.
Line 6
上九 自天祐之。吉无不利。
Nine at the top means: He is blessed by heaven. Good fortune. Nothing that does not further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
蟠枝失岐，與母別離，絕不相知。
A coiling branch loses its fork; separated from the mother. Cut off and knowing nothing of each other.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire in heaven gives way to pure earth, and with that shift the verse traces an image of severance. A tree's spreading branches lose their fork — the limb splits from the trunk and falls. Mother and child are separated, cut off so completely they no longer know each other's fate. The Chinese text uses 蟠枝 (coiling branches), suggesting something that once intertwined is now torn apart. From Great Possession to the Receptive, the transformation moves from blazing clarity to silent, yielding earth. What heaven's fire illuminated, earth's darkness swallows. The verse reads as the cost of that passage: abundance does not prevent loss, and the vast receptive field of Kun, though it receives all things, offers no guarantee of reunion.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store