豫 → 未濟
Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
Line 2
六二 介于石。不終日。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Firm as a rock. Not a whole day. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 6
上六 冥豫。成有渝。无咎。
Six at the top means: Deluded enthusiasm. But if after completion one changes, There is no blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
採薪得麟，大命隕顛。豪雄爭名，天下四分。
The land splits — each quarter crowns its own king. The dragon banner is torn into a hundred warlord pennants. A wounded qilin lies in the barren wild — who remembers peace once had a name?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder erupts from the earth one final time, and the original verse speaks its dire prophecy: a woodcutter discovers the qilin, and heaven's great mandate collapses. Heroes contend for fame, and the realm fractures into four parts. The capture of the qilin in 481 BC marked the end of the Spring and Autumn moral order — Confucius's Way exhausted, the world splitting into warring fragments. From Enthusiasm to Before Completion, the transformation is the most fitting of all possible endings: fire sits above water, forever reaching upward while water sinks below, never quite meeting. The enthusiast's final verse acknowledges that some completions never arrive. The qilin lies wounded, the banners are torn, and the name of peace survives only as a memory no one can verify.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store