坤 → 晉
Hexagram 2: The Receptive → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 6).
Line 4
六四 括囊。无咎无譽。
Six in the fourth place means: A tied-up sack. No blame, no praise.
Line 6
上六 龍戰于野。其血玄黃。
Six at the top means: Dragons fight in the meadow. Their blood is black and yellow.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
栵潔累累，締結難解。嫫母衒嫁，媒不得坐，自為身禍。
Thorns cluster upon cluster, knotted and hard to untangle. Momo the ugly woman parades herself for marriage; the matchmaker cannot rest. She becomes a calamity to herself.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth upon earth yields to fire above earth — Progress. Thorny branches grow thick and tangled, knotted beyond undoing. Mo Mu, the legendarily ugly woman, parades herself seeking a husband, but no matchmaker dares sit down to arrange the match — she brings calamity upon herself. Mo Mu, said to be a consort of the Yellow Emperor, represents inner virtue concealed behind a forbidding exterior. Fire emerging from the earth, the image of Jin, depicts the sun rising — progress, advancement, light breaking through. Yet Mo Mu cannot advance because her presentation repels. From the Receptive to Progress, the earth's hidden worth must emerge into daylight, but when the emergence is forced and the audience unprepared, even genuine virtue fails to find recognition. Progress requires not only merit but the right moment of revelation.
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