坤 → 剝
Hexagram 2: The Receptive → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
Line 3
六三 含章可貞。或從王事。无成有終。
Six in the third place means: Hidden lines. One is able to remain persevering. If by chance you are in the service of a king, Seek not works, but bring to completion.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
南山大玃，盜我媚妾。怯不敢逐，退而獨宿。
The great ape of the southern mountains steals my lovely concubine. Too timid to give chase, I retreat and sleep alone.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth upon earth yields to mountain above earth — Splitting Apart. A great ape of the southern mountains steals one's beloved concubine. Too timid to give chase, one retreats and sleeps alone. The great ape (jue) is a creature of classical lore — a large primate from the mountain wilderness that abducts women, representing raw bestial force encroaching on civilized life. Mountain resting on earth, the image of Bo, shows the mountain slowly eroding from below until it collapses. From the Receptive to Splitting Apart, the earth's yielding nature is exploited: unable to resist, the victim watches as what is precious is stripped away. Bo's counsel is to thicken the foundation (hou xia an zhai), but this verse captures the moment before that wisdom arrives — when passivity has already cost too much.
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