觀 → 既濟
Hexagram 20: Contemplation → Hexagram 63: After Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 6).
Line 1
初六 童觀。小人无咎。君子吝。
Six at the beginning means: Boy like contemplation. For an inferior man, no blame. For a superior man, humiliation.
Line 3
六三 觀我生進退。
Six in the third place means: Contemplation of my life Decides the choice Between advance and retreat.
Line 6
上九 觀其生。君子无咎。
Nine at the top means: Contemplation of his life. The superior man is without blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
班馬還師，以息勞罷；役夫嘉喜，入戶見妻。
Mottled horses return with the army to relieve the weary and spent; the conscript soldiers rejoice -- entering the door, they see their wives.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over earth watches an army returning home. The horses whinny as they part company and the troops disband, resting at last from their exhaustion. The conscript soldiers shout with joy as they walk through their doors to see their wives again. 'Ban ma' — horses dispersing at a march's end — is a classical image of military demobilization, carrying both relief and the bittersweet residue of campaign hardship. Water over fire forms After Completion, where every element is in its proper place. From Contemplation to After Completion, the observer witnesses the rarest of moments: a task genuinely finished. The soldiers' homecoming embodies the hexagram's promise — everything has crossed over, and the long labor finds its natural rest in reunion.
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