謙 → 艮
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
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
空槽注豬，豚彘不到；張弓祝雞，雄父飛去。
An empty trough set out for pigs; the swine never arrive. Drawing the bow to curse the rooster; the cock flies away.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain, but the trough is empty and the pigs do not come; the bow is drawn to bless the rooster, and the cock flies away. Every preparation meets its opposite: the feeding trough attracts nothing, the ritual meant to sanctify drives its subject off. From Modesty to Keeping Still, twin mountains stand face to face — 'thinking does not go beyond one's position.' The verse captures Keeping Still's counsel in negative form: attempts to attract or retain through outward gesture fail when the fundamental alignment is wrong. The empty trough and the fleeing rooster both suggest that forced hospitality repels rather than gathers. Modesty's earth offers nothing to those who will not come of their own accord; stillness means accepting what cannot be compelled.
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