Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 55: Abundance

Following
Lake / Thunder
Abundance
Thunder / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).

Line 3

六三 係丈夫。失小子。隨有求得。利居貞。

attached
zhàngthe senior elder
gentleman
shīlosing
xiǎoa little
child
suífollow
yǒuassumes
qiúa quest
gain
worthwhile
to abide in
zhēnpersistence

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 5

九五 孚于嘉。吉。

trust
in
jiāexcellence
promising

Nine in the fifth place means: Sincere in the good. Good fortune.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramLake ThunderThe Joyous → The Arousing
Lower TrigramThunder FireThe Arousing → The Clinging

Yilin Verse

鄰不我顧,而求玉女;身多禿癩,誰肯媚者!

The neighbor does not look my way, yet I seek a beautiful maiden; my body covered with sores and scabs -- who would find me pleasing?

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Thunder rests within the lake, but the neighbor pays no attention, while the speaker pursues a jade-like beauty far beyond his station. Covered in sores and scabs, who would find him attractive? The verse is brutally self-aware: the suitor follows his desire toward an impossible match, ignoring the reality that his own condition makes him repulsive. Ambition untempered by self-knowledge is its own humiliation. From Following to Abundance, thunder and lightning blaze together in Feng — brilliant illumination at the peak of power. Yet Feng also carries the warning that fullness tips into decline. The suitor's deluded pursuit mirrors the over-reaching inherent in Feng's excess: seeking the brightest prize while blind to one's own deficiencies.

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