Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake

Following
Lake / Thunder
The Joyous Lake
Lake / Lake
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).

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.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramLake Lake
Lower TrigramThunder LakeThe Arousing → The Joyous

Yilin Verse

兩心不同,或欲西東;明論終始,莫適所從。

Two hearts not in accord; one would go west, the other east. Debating the matter from beginning to end, neither knows whom to follow.

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

Commentary

Thunder rests within the lake, but two hearts pull in opposite directions — one wishes to go west, the other east. Even after a thorough analysis of beginning and end, there is no resolution about whom to follow. The verse distills the paralysis of indecision: when two equally compelling paths diverge, rational analysis provides no tiebreaker. From Following to the Joyous, paired lakes in Dui represent shared delight through mutual discourse — friends studying and debating together. Yet this verse shows the failure mode of Dui's doubled openness: two open mouths speaking at cross purposes, each joyfully certain of a different direction, producing not consensus but stalemate. Following requires choosing; endless discussion is its own form of refusal.

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