謙 → 乾
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 謙謙君子。用涉大川。吉。
Six at the beginning means: A superior man modest about his modesty May cross the great water. Good fortune.
Line 2
六二 鳴謙。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Modesty that comes to expression. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 4
六四 无不利撝謙。
Six in the fourth place means: Nothing that would not further modesty In movement.
Line 5
六五 不富以其鄰。利用侵伐。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: No boasting of wealth before one's neighbor. It is favorable to attack with force. Nothing that would not further.
Line 6
上六 鳴謙。利用行師。征邑國。
Six at the top means: Modesty that comes to expression. It is favorable to set armies marching To chastise one's own city and one's country.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
喋囁處曜，昧冥相待；多言少實，終無成事。
Chattering and flickering in the glare; dim darkness waits upon itself. Many words, little substance; in the end, nothing is accomplished.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds a mountain within, the image of Modesty, yet here that hidden strength dissipates into chatter. Mouths move ceaselessly — 喋囁 evokes the sound of lips flapping without substance — while dimness waits upon dimness. Many words, little substance: nothing is accomplished. The verse diagnoses a failure of speech divorced from action. From Modesty to the Creative, the mountain buried in earth should transform into heaven's self-generating power, yet the talker who mistakes noise for initiative never reaches that threshold. The Creative demands tireless self-strengthening; hollow rhetoric produces only stagnation. Modesty's quiet virtue, when diluted into empty verbosity, cannot fuel the creative force that requires disciplined will.
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