Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind

Following
Lake / Thunder
The Gentle Wind
Wind / Wind
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6).

Line 1

初九 官有渝。貞吉。出門交有功。

guānthe standards
yǒuwill
change
zhēnpersistence
promising
chūleaving
ména outer gate
jiāoto communicate
yǒuhas
gōngmerit

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。

attached
xiǎoa little
child
shīlosing
zhàngthe senior
gentleman

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。

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 4

九四 隨有獲。貞凶。有孚在道以明。何咎。

suífollow
yǒuhas
huòsuccess
zhēnpersistence
xiōngunfortunate
yǒube
true
zàion
dàoa way
in order to be
míngclear
where is
jiùthe blame

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 6

上六 拘係之。乃從維之。王用亨于西山。

seize
and bind
zhīthem
nǎiand then
cóngfollow
wéiholding fast
zhīthem
wángthe Sovereign
yòngwill make
hēngfulfillment
to
西the Western (the site of the Zhou
shānMountain ancestral shrine)

Six at the top means: He meets with firm allegiance And is still further bound. The king introduces him To the Western Mountain.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramLake WindThe Joyous → The Gentle
Lower TrigramThunder WindThe Arousing → The Gentle

Yilin Verse

水壞我里,東流為海;龜鳧讙囂,不睹王母。

Floodwaters breach my village, flowing east to the sea; turtles and ducks clamor noisily -- the Queen Mother is not to be seen.

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

Commentary

Thunder rests within the lake, but the waters have broken through the village. The flood courses eastward to the sea, and amid the clamor of turtles and waterfowl, the Queen Mother of the West is nowhere to be seen. When the waters overwhelm the settlement, even the divine guardian of immortality becomes inaccessible. The turtles and ducks — creatures at home in flood — celebrate where humans drown. The Queen Mother's absence means the hope of transcendence is cut off by the very waters that should nourish life. From Following to the Gentle, doubled wind penetrates everywhere. Yet Xun's pervasive influence here manifests as a flood that infiltrates every corner, dissolving the boundary between the mortal and the sacred.

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