蠱 → 升
Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
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
雞方啄粟，為狐所逐；走不得食，惶懼惕息。
The hen was pecking grain when the fox gave chase; she fled and could not eat -- trembling and breathless with fright.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath the mountain disturbs the feeding ground, and the transformation rises as wood growing within the earth — the steady ascent of Pushing Upward. A chicken is pecking at grain when a fox chases it away. Running in terror, it cannot eat; it trembles and gasps for breath. The domestic hen — symbol of modest, steady sustenance — is driven from its livelihood by a cunning predator. The verse captures the vulnerability of the ordinary under corrupt conditions: even simple nourishment is denied by those who prey upon the defenseless. From Work on the Decayed to Pushing Upward, the chicken's displacement is temporary. Wood grows within the earth — slow, steady, and ultimately unstoppable. What the fox scatters, patient growth gathers back, one grain at a time.
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