隨 → 乾
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
Line 2
六二 係小子。失丈夫。
Six in the second place means: If one clings to the little boy, One loses the strong man.
Line 3
六三 係丈夫。失小子。隨有求得。利居貞。
Six in the third place means: If one clings to the strong man, One loses the little boy. Through following one finds what one seeks. It furthers one to remain persevering.
Line 6
上六 拘係之。乃從維之。王用亨于西山。
Six at the top means: He meets with firm allegiance And is still further bound. The king introduces him To the Western Mountain.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鼻目易處，不知香臭；君迷於事，失其寵位。
Nose and eyes switched places; one cannot tell fragrance from stench. The lord, confused in his affairs, loses his favored position.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, and all things follow the current of the season. Yet here nose and eyes have traded places — the organs of perception are disordered, unable to distinguish fragrant from foul. When a ruler loses his capacity for discernment, he grows confused in governance and forfeits his favored position. The verse draws on the classical motif of sensory inversion as political allegory: a lord who cannot 'smell' corruption around him will be displaced. From Following to the Creative, the transformation is stark — the yielding adaptability of Sui should give rise to heaven's self-generating initiative, but when perception itself is corrupted, the sovereign energy of Qian cannot activate, and power slips away.
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