臨 → 兌
Hexagram 19: Approach → Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 5).
Line 4
六四 至臨。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: Complete approach. No blame.
Line 5
六五 知臨。大君之宜。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Wise approach. This is right for a great prince. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
貧鬼守門，日破我盆；孤牝不駒，雞不成雛。
The ghost of poverty guards the gate, day by day shattering my basin; the lone mare bears no foal -- the hen hatches no chick.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth above the lake encounters doubled lakes — the Joyous in mutual reflection. Yet there is no joy here: the ghost of poverty guards the door, smashing the household's pots day after day. The lone mare bears no foal; the hen hatches no chicks. Everything that should produce is barren; everything that should hold together shatters. The poverty-ghost is a folk image of relentless destitution — a supernatural force that prevents accumulation. From Approach to the Joyous, the doubled lake should reflect delight in shared discourse, but here the mirror shows only emptiness. Two lakes with nothing between them: the form of joy without its substance, vessels broken, fertility denied, the daily destruction of even the most modest hopes.
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