謙 → 否
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 12: Standstill
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 3
九三 勞謙君子。有終吉。
Nine in the third place means: A superior man of modesty and merit Carries things to conclusion. 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
踐履危難，脫厄去患；入福喜門，見吾邦君。
Treading through peril and hardship; one escapes and sheds calamity. Entering the gate of blessing and joy; one beholds our lord.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain in modesty, and here one treads through genuine danger — 踐履危難 — yet emerges safely, shedding misfortune and entering the gate of blessing to see one's lord. The verse moves from peril to audience with the sovereign, from crisis to recognition. From Modesty to Standstill, heaven and earth cease their intercourse, a time when the worthy withdraw. Yet the verse paradoxically shows passage through danger into joy. The resolution lies in Pi's counsel: 'the noble man practices frugal virtue to avoid calamity.' The modest one who endures danger with restraint does not merely survive but reaches the ruler's presence — proof that navigating Standstill's blockage requires not force but principled perseverance, the very core of Modesty's discipline.
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