謙 → 頤
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 27: Nourishment
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 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 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 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
鳥升鵠舉，照臨東海；龍降庭堅，為陶叔後；封於英六，履祿綏厚。
Birds ascending, swans soaring; gazing out over the eastern sea. A dragon descends to Tingjian; becoming the heir of Lord Tao. Enfeoffed at Ying and Liu; his stipend and bounty are rich and generous.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain, and a great bird rises like a swan ascending, its light illuminating the Eastern Sea. Then the verse invokes Gao Yao's lineage: his descendant Tingjian, ancestor of the Tao Shu clan, was enfeoffed at Ying and Liu — territories in modern Anhui. The verse traces a genealogy of merit: Gao Yao served as minister of justice under Shun and Yu, and his descendants inherited fiefdoms through accumulated virtue. From Modesty to Nourishment, the mountain stands above thunder — careful words, measured sustenance. The bird's soaring illumination and the ancestral fiefdom alike represent the fruit of generations of nourishing virtue. What the mountain holds is finally fed forward to future generations, a legacy of righteousness rewarded with enduring prosperity.
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