隨 → 益
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 42: Increase
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 6).
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 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
威權分離，烏夜徘徊；爭蔽月光，大人誅傷。
Authority and power split apart; crows circle restlessly by night. Vying to block the moonlight -- the great man is cut down.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, but authority and power have split apart. Crows circle in the night, contending to block the moonlight; a great man is struck down. The nocturnal scene is ominous: when legitimate power fragments, dark forces swarm to eclipse whatever illumination remains. The crows fighting over the moon suggest factional struggle obscuring the sovereign's radiance, and the 'great man' — the figure of central authority — is injured in the chaos. From Following to Increase, wind and thunder reinforce each other in Yi, the gentleman correcting faults and embracing virtue. The verse presents Increase's shadow: when following fractures into rivalry, even the mechanism of mutual enhancement becomes a weapon, and power meant to increase the whole instead devours its center.
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