隨 → 夬
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
辯變白黑，巧言亂國；大人失福，君子迷惑。
Twisting black and white with clever arguments, glib words throw the state into chaos; the great man loses his fortune, the gentleman is led astray.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, and a silver tongue inverts black and white. Clever speech confounds the state, great men lose their good fortune, and the gentleman is bewildered. The verse targets the rhetorician who follows no truth, only persuasive effect — the sophist whose 'discernment' of right and wrong is actually the deliberate reversal of both. This recalls Zhao Gao's 'pointing at a deer and calling it a horse,' where rhetorical power overrides reality itself. From Following to Breakthrough, the lake rises above heaven in Guai, determination to expel what is corrupt. The verse shows why Guai's decisive action is necessary: when language itself has been weaponized, only a clean break can restore clarity.
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