謙 → 賁
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 22: Grace
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
十雌百雛，常與母俱；抱雞搏虎，誰敢害諸？
Ten hens, a hundred chicks, always together with the mother. Carrying a chicken to fight a tiger; who would dare to harm them?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain in protection. Ten hens with a hundred chicks stay always with their mother — clutching her chicken, she would fight a tiger, and who would dare harm them? The image is domestic and fierce at once: the mother hen's devotion transforms weakness into inviolable strength. No predator dares approach. From Modesty to Grace, fire glows beneath the mountain, illuminating without blazing. Grace adorns the natural order rather than overpowering it. The mother hen's protection is not brute force but the adorning power of devotion — a beautiful fierceness that makes even the tiger hesitate. Modesty's hidden mountain here shelters the vulnerable, and what shines forth is not ambition but the radiant pattern of protective love.
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