大有 → 師
Hexagram 14: Great Possession → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
三火起明，兩滅其光；高位疾巔，驕恣誅傷。
Three fires blaze bright; two are extinguished. At the summit, illness strikes; arrogance and excess bring punishment and harm.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Three fires kindle bright, but two are extinguished — only one light remains. Those in high positions stumble at the summit, and arrogance brings punishment and ruin. The imagery of three fires with two quenched suggests a court or household where most of its luminaries have fallen, leaving a single diminished flame. From Great Possession to The Army, fire over heaven transforms into water hidden within earth — disciplined force concealed beneath the surface. The verse warns that unchecked pride at the height of power invites its own destruction. The Army's mechanism is not brute conquest but organized, disciplined response: the survivors must rally what remains, contain the arrogant, and rebuild order from the ashes of overreach.
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