隨 → 歸妹

Commentary

Thunder rests within the lake, but luminous virtue has gone into hiding. The qilin and phoenix — creatures that appear only under sage rule — have fled to distant concealment. The Zhou royal house tilts and totters, finding no place to rest. This verse laments a world that has lost its moral compass: when the auspicious beasts withdraw, Heaven itself signals that the age of virtuous governance is over. The absence of the qilin echoes Confucius's weeping at the Western Hunt. From Following to the Marrying Maiden, thunder above the lake in Gui Mei signals an irreversible transition — the maiden given in marriage does not return. The Zhou's collapse, like the maiden's departure, is a one-way threshold: what was cannot be restored.