噬嗑 → 隨
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 17: Following
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 5, 6).
Line 5
六五 噬乾肉。得黃金。貞厲。无咎。
Six in the fifth place means: Bites on dried lean meat. Receives yellow gold. Perseveringly aware of danger. 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
陰升陽伏，桀失其室；相餧不食。
Yin ascends, yang hides away; Jie lost his throne. They offer food to each other, yet none will eat.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder enforce the law, but here the cosmic order has reversed: yin ascends while yang lies buried. King Jie of Xia, the archetypal tyrant, loses his household and his throne. The final phrase — 'they feed each other but cannot eat' — captures the paradox of mutual dependence without nourishment, a relationship so poisoned that even sustenance offered cannot be received. From Biting Through to Following, the lake rests above thunder in willing submission. Yet the verse inverts this: Jie's court followed pleasure rather than principle, and the natural order of leader and led collapsed. When the ruler is unworthy, following becomes self-destruction.
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