謙 → 旅
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
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
有莘季女，為夏妃后；貴夫壽子，母字四海。
A phoenix nests in the paulownia as sweet dew falls; the silkworm chamber produces five-colored thread. Her sons are like dragons standing at court — she is the model of motherhood, crowned among all women.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain, and the original verse identifies the youngest daughter of the Youshen clan who became consort to the Xia king. Her husband noble, her son long-lived, she is 'mother to the four seas' — the queen whose virtue encompasses the realm. The Youshen clan is the same lineage from which Yi Yin emerged as a kitchen servant before becoming Shang's greatest minister. From Modesty to The Wanderer, fire burns upon the mountain — the traveler's campfire, cautious and visible from afar. The verse connects a woman's journey from the Youshen household to the royal court with the Wanderer's theme of finding one's place far from home. Her modesty and virtue transform exile into enthronement, the stranger into the mother of a nation.
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