隨 → 損
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 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 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
使燕築室，身無庇宿；家不容車，微我衣服。
Sending the swallow to build a house, yet having no shelter for oneself; the home cannot fit a cart -- my clothing grows threadbare.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, but someone commissions swallows to build a house. Predictably, the result offers no shelter — the dwelling cannot accommodate even a small cart, and the speaker's clothing is worn to threads. Enlisting migrant birds for construction is a parable of misplaced trust: swallows build mud nests under eaves, not habitable rooms. The verse satirizes futile delegation — following the wrong agent for the task at hand. From Following to Decrease, the mountain draws from the lake below in Sun, diminishing what is lower to benefit what is higher. Here the diminishment is pure waste: resources spent on an incompetent builder yield nothing, and even one's garments decay from exposure.
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