坤 → 師
Hexagram 2: The Receptive → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
皇陛九重，絕不可登。未見王公，謂天蓋高。
The imperial stairs rise in nine tiers, utterly impossible to climb. Never having seen the lords and dukes, one calls heaven exceedingly high.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth upon earth transforms into earth above water — the Army. The imperial steps rise nine layers, absolutely impossible to climb. Without an audience with the king, one concludes that heaven's canopy must be impossibly high. Earth over water, the Army's image, is water hidden within the earth — disciplined force beneath a calm surface. The verse evokes the common person's perspective: the throne is unreachable, the ruler invisible, and the distance between subject and sovereign feels as vast as that between earth and sky. From the Receptive to the Army, Kun's humble earth confronts the vertical hierarchy of military-political order. The nine steps are simultaneously the obstacle and the structure that makes governance possible — the ranks that separate also organize.
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