Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm → Hexagram 27: Nourishment

Enthusiasm
Thunder / Earth
Nourishment
Mountain / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 6).

Line 1

初六 鳴豫。凶。

míngproclaiming
readiness
xiōngdisappointing

Six at the beginning means: Enthusiasm that expresses itself Brings misfortune.

Line 4

九四 由豫。大有得。勿疑。朋盍簪。

yóuat the source
readiness
there is with much
yǒuto have
to gain
do not
hesitation
péngcompanions
gather
zānas

Nine in the fourth place means: The source of enthusiasm. He achieves great things. Doubt not. You gather friends around you As a hair clasp gathers the hair.

Line 6

上六 冥豫。成有渝。无咎。

míngblind
readiness
chéngaccomplish
yǒuwhile
a change for worse
no
jiùblame

Six at the top means: Deluded enthusiasm. But if after completion one changes, There is no blame.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramThunder MountainThe Arousing → Keeping Still
Lower TrigramEarth ThunderThe Receptive → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

滕虵乘龍,宋鄭飢凶;民食草蓬。

The vine-snake mounts the dragon; Song and Zheng suffer famine and calamity. The people eat wild grasses.

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

Commentary

Thunder rises from the earth, but a flying serpent rides upon a dragon — the natural hierarchy inverted, the lesser commanding the greater. The states of Song and Zheng suffer famine, and the people are reduced to eating wild weeds. The 'flying serpent riding the dragon' is a classical omen of misrule: when subordinates usurp their superiors, calamity follows. The famine in Song and Zheng makes the consequences visceral — not abstract political theory but empty stomachs and desperate foraging. From Enthusiasm to Nourishment, the transformation is bitterly apt: mountain over thunder, the image of careful feeding. When governance is inverted and nourishment fails, the people starve. Enthusiasm perverted into misrule produces the opposite of what Nourishment requires.

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