蠱 → 歸妹
Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed → Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 幹父之蠱。有子。考无咎。厲終吉。
Six in the beginning means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. If there is a son, No blame rests upon the departed father. Danger. In the end good fortune.
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 4
六四 裕父之蠱。往見吝。
Six in the fourth place means: Tolerating what has been spoiled by the father. In continuing one sees humiliation.
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
下泉苞稂，十年無王。荀伯遇時，憂念周京。
Beneath the spring, weeds engulf the grain; for ten years there is no king. Lord Xun meets the moment -- he grieves and thinks of the Zhou capital.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath the mountain chokes the springs, and the transformation thunders above the lake — the Marrying Maiden given without choice. 'Beneath the spring, weeds wrap the grain; for ten years, no true king reigns.' This quotes the Shijing ode 'Xia Quan' from the Cao winds, lamenting a state without rightful governance where only weeds grow in the flooded fields. 'Xunbo meets his moment and grieves for the Zhou capital.' Xun Bo (Xun Li) was a Jin minister who in 520 BC helped restore King Jing of Zhou to his throne. From Work on the Decayed to the Marrying Maiden, the loyal minister appears when the dynasty seems lost. Thunder above the lake stirs what lies dormant — but the marriage of duty to crisis is irreversible, and the maiden who enters knows she cannot return.
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