Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer

Modesty
Earth / Mountain
The Wanderer
Fire / Mountain
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 6).

Line 4

六四 无不利撝謙。

without
doubt
worthwhile
huīwith
qiānof authenticity

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。

míngproclaiming
qiānauthenticity
it is worthwhile
yòngand useful
xíngto move
shīthe militia
zhēngto advance on
home town
guóand province

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

Upper TrigramEarth FireThe Receptive → The Clinging
Lower TrigramMountain Mountain

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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