蠱 → 坤
Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
Line 2
九二 幹母之蠱。不可貞。
Nine in the second place means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the mother. One must not be too persevering.
Line 3
九三 幹父之蠱。小有悔。无大咎。
Nine in the third place means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. There will be a little remorse. No great blame.
Line 6
上九 不事王侯。高尚其事。
Nine at the top means: He does not serve kings and princes, Sets himself higher goals.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
䡘䡘轠轠，歲莫偏蔽，寵名捐棄，君衰在位。
Rumbling and clattering; as the year wanes, all is obscured. Favor and fame are cast aside; the lord declines upon the throne.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind trapped beneath the mountain breeds neglect, and the transformation descends into pure earth. Wheels rattle and axles groan as the year draws to its close, everything shrouded and obscured. Favor and reputation are cast away; the ruler grows feeble while still upon the throne. The onomatopoeia of creaking carts suggests a regime in terminal decline — all mechanism, no vitality. From Work on the Decayed to the Receptive, the dynamic is one of entropy completed: what should have been repaired instead collapses into passive dissolution. The mountain's wind, unable to renew what lies beneath, surrenders to earth's absorbing stillness. Even the throne becomes merely a seat, its mandate exhausted.
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