謙 → 晉
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 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 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
引順絕糧，與母異門；不見所懽，孰與共言？
Led along with rations cut; separated from mother by different gates. Not seeing those one loves; with whom can one share a word?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain in modesty, and now provisions are exhausted — 引順絕糧 — one follows the road but food has run out. Separated from one's mother, dwelling at different gates, unable to see the beloved: with whom can one share a word? The verse is a lament of destitution and isolation. From Modesty to Progress, fire rises above the earth — light emerging into the open, the image of advancement. Yet the verse shows the painful ground from which progress must start: hungry, motherless, alone. Progress demands that the noble one 'display bright virtue,' but this verse captures the pre-dawn moment when the light has not yet broken the horizon. The separation from the mother echoes the severed root — Progress begins from this desolation.
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