隨 → 困
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 2).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
黷黷許許，仇偶相得；冰入炭室，消亡不息。
Mumbling and murmuring, enemies paired together; ice enters the charcoal chamber, melting away without cease.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, and a murmuring, whispering negotiation pairs enemies together. Adversaries find each other like ice entering a charcoal room — they dissolve and vanish ceaselessly. The image is thermodynamic: opposing forces brought into contact annihilate each other. The whispered match-making (黷黷許許) suggests something surreptitious about this union of contraries. From Following to Oppression, the lake has lost its water in Kun — what should sustain is drained. The verse reveals how following a hostile partner into close quarters leads to mutual destruction: both dissolve, both vanish, and the emptied lake of Kun is the residue of their fatal embrace.
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