坤 → 未濟
Hexagram 2: The Receptive → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 6).
Line 2
六二 直方大。不習无不利。
Six in the second place means: Straight, square, great. Without purpose, Yet nothing remains unfurthered.
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
陰衰老極，陽建其德。履離戴光，天下昭明。功業不長，蝦䗫代王。
Yin wanes and reaches its extreme; yang builds its virtue. Treading on Li, wearing radiance; all under heaven grows bright. But achievements do not last long; the toad reigns in the king’s stead.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth upon earth transforms into fire above water — Before Completion. Yin wanes to its extreme and yang rebuilds its virtue. One treads on fire and wears radiance; the realm shines with brilliance. Yet achievement does not endure: the toad displaces the king. Fire above water, the image of Wei Ji, shows everything out of place — fire that should be below sits above, water that should be above sits below. The verse captures the cosmic pivot: yin exhausted, yang ascendant, light blazing forth. But the final line — the toad (likely a small, lowly creature) replacing the sovereign — warns that Before Completion never reaches completion. From the Receptive to Before Completion, the earth's spent yin yields its last energy to the rising yang, yet the new order is immediately challenged by an unworthy successor. The cycle never closes.
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