隨 → 大有
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 14: Great Possession
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5, 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 5
九五 孚于嘉。吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Sincere in the good. Good fortune.
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
華燈百枝，消衰暗微；精光訖盡，奄有灰靡。
A splendid lamp of a hundred branches; its glow dims and fades. Its radiance spent and gone, it crumbles away to ash.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, and a grand chandelier of a hundred branches blazes in the hall. Yet its light gutters and fades, the radiance exhausting itself until only cold ash remains. The image is of splendor burning down to nothing — a court whose brilliance was real but unsustainable. Fire in heaven is Great Possession's image, the sun at its zenith. From Following to Great Possession, the verse inverts Da You's promise: instead of fire sustained by heaven's inexhaustible mandate, the hundred-branched lamp has no renewable source. It followed its nature — to burn — but without replenishment, magnificence consumes itself. Abundance without renewal is merely spectacular decay.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store