謙 → 革
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 49: Revolution
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鸇鳩徒巢，西至平州；遭逢雷雹，闢我葦蘆。室家飢寒，思吾故初。
The hawk and dove abandon their nest; westward they reach Pingzhou. Meeting with thunder and hail; they tear away our reed hut. The household shivers in cold and hunger; longing for our former state.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain, but the sparrowhawk-turned-dove steals a nest rather than building one — an allusion to the Shijing ode 'Que Chao' about the cuckoo occupying another bird's nest, a metaphor for displacement. Traveling west to Pingzhou, the bird encounters hail and thunderstorms that destroy its reed shelter. The household shivers in hunger, longing for the old days. From Modesty to Revolution, fire burns within the lake — opposing forces demanding transformation. The verse shows Revolution's cost: the displaced creature, already occupying a borrowed home, loses even that to heaven's fury. Revolution strips away all pretense, exposing the fundamental instability of borrowed arrangements. Modesty's earth cannot shelter what was never truly rooted.
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