Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind

Modesty
Earth / Mountain
The Gentle Wind
Wind / Wind
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).

Line 2

六二 鳴謙。貞吉。

míngproclaim
qiānauthenticity
zhēnpersistence
is promising

Six in the second place means: Modesty that comes to expression. Perseverance brings good fortune.

Line 5

六五 不富以其鄰。利用侵伐。无不利。

there is no
enrichment
making use of
one's
línneighbors
it is worthwhile
yòngand useful
qīnto occupy
and subjugate
without
doubt
worthwhile

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.

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 WindThe Receptive → The Gentle
Lower TrigramMountain WindKeeping Still → The Gentle

Yilin Verse

季姜踟躕,待孟城隅;終日至暮,不見齊侯。

Lady Ji Jiang paces to and fro, waiting for the lord at the city wall. From dawn until dusk; she does not see the Lord of Qi.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Earth holds the mountain in stillness, and Ji Jiang — 'youngest Jiang,' a woman of the Jiang clan — paces hesitantly at the city wall, waiting for Meng at the corner. From morning until dusk she waits, but the lord of Qi never appears. The verse echoes the Shijing ode 'Jing Nu' (The Quiet Maiden): 'She waits for me at the city corner.' Yet here the meeting never occurs — the waiting is in vain. From Modesty to The Gentle, doubled wind penetrates softly but persistently. The verse inverts Xun's penetrating influence: instead of wind reaching everywhere, the woman's longing reaches nowhere. The lord does not come. Modesty's patience, when it meets permanent absence, becomes not virtue but melancholy endurance without resolution.

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