謙 → 坤
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
北辰紫宮，衣冠立中；含和建德，常受大福。鈆刀攻玉，堅不可得。
The North Star in the Purple Palace; robed and capped, standing at the center. Embracing harmony, building virtue; one ever receives great blessing. A lead knife attacking jade; the hard cannot be won.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain low, and now the verse lifts its gaze to the Pole Star at the Purple Palace — the celestial pivot around which all heaven revolves. Robed and capped, the ruler stands at the center, embracing harmony and building virtue, receiving great blessings perpetually. Then the image pivots sharply: a lead knife attacking jade — the blade too soft, the stone too hard, the task impossible. From Modesty to the Receptive, the doubled earth suggests yielding devotion, yet even perfect receptivity has limits. One who embodies cosmic centrality and accrued virtue receives heaven's favor effortlessly, but attempting to force results with inadequate tools — lead against jade — yields nothing. The Receptive succeeds through alignment, never through brute insistence.
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