隨 → 蒙
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 官有渝。貞吉。出門交有功。
Nine at the beginning means: The standard is changing. Perseverance brings good fortune. To go out of the door in company Produces deeds.
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 4
九四 隨有獲。貞凶。有孚在道以明。何咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Following creates success. Perseverance brings misfortune. To go one's way with sincerity brings clarity. How could there be blame in this?
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
蒼龍單獨，與石相觸，摧折兩角。
The azure dragon, alone, collided with a boulder; both horns snapped and broke.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, but the Azure Dragon ventures forth alone. Solitary and without allies, it collides with a great stone and shatters both its horns. The Azure Dragon — celestial guardian of the east, emblem of spring's vital energy — is invincible when riding its proper season, yet devastating when it acts in isolation. Without companions or a supporting formation, even cosmic power breaks against brute resistance. From Following to Youthful Folly, the transformation reveals the cost of abandoning Sui's principle of adaptive companionship: the dragon that refuses to follow the current crashes headlong into the mountain's unyielding ignorance, its strength squandered in a needless collision.
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