噬嗑 → 豫
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 6).
Line 1
初九 履校滅趾。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: His feet are fastened in the stocks, So that his toes disappear. No blame.
Line 6
上九 何校滅耳。凶。
Nine at the top means: His neck is fastened in the wooden cangue, So that his ears disappear. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
臝裎逐狐，為人觀笑。牝雞雄晨，主作亂妖。
Naked and exposed, chasing a fox -- a spectacle for others' laughter. A hen crows at dawn like a rooster -- the master invites disorder and calamity.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder administer the law, and this verse shows what happens when authority is inverted. A naked figure chases foxes, becoming a spectacle for public mockery. Then the classical allusion strikes: 'the hen crows at dawn' — from the Book of Documents' Oath at Muye, where King Wu warns that when a woman usurps the morning crow, it signals the household's ruin. The hen crowing at dawn was King Wu's indictment of Daji's influence over King Zhou of Shang. From Biting Through to Enthusiasm, thunder erupts from the earth in exuberant motion. But the verse inverts this energy: enthusiasm without proper order becomes chaos, spectacle becomes farce, and misplaced authority breeds calamity.
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