隨 → 升
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 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 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.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
登几上輿，駕駟南遊；合從散衡，燕秦以僵。
Mounting the bench, ascending the carriage, driving four horses southward; the Vertical Alliance broken, the Horizontal dissolved -- Yan and Qin both stiffened to ruin.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake as a lord ascends his carriage and drives a team of four horses south. The verse then invokes the great diplomatic game of the Warring States: the Vertical Alliance (合從) unites weaker states against Qin, while the Horizontal Alliance (散衡/連橫) is Qin's counter-strategy of bilateral deals to pick them off individually. The result: Yan and Qin are left in rigid deadlock. From Following to Pushing Upward, the earth conceals wood that grows slowly toward the light. The verse suggests that grand alliances, for all their strategic brilliance, can freeze into stalemate — true ascent requires organic growth from below, not top-down diplomatic maneuvering.
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