隨 → 解
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5).
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 5
九五 孚于嘉。吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Sincere in the good. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
王喬不病，狗頭不痛；三尸失履，乏我逆從。
Wang Qiao knows no illness; the dog head feels no pain. The Three Worms have lost their shoes -- they lack my attendants to follow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, and the immortal Wang Qiao knows no illness; the dog-headed spirits feel no pain. The Three Corpses — the Daoist inner demons that gnaw at one's vitality and hasten death — have lost their shoes and can no longer follow the adept. In Daoist physiology, the Three Corpses (三尸) reside within the body and scheme to shorten life; expelling them is the first step toward immortality. Here their 'lost shoes' signal impotence: they can neither track nor torment the practitioner. From Following to Deliverance, thunder and rain break the tension of Jie, releasing what was bound. The Three Corpses' defeat is a precise image of deliverance — bondage to internal decay is severed, and the body is freed.
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