噬嗑 → 臨
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 19: Approach
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 6).
Line 2
六二 噬膚滅鼻。无咎。
Six in the second place means: Bites through tender meat, So that his nose disappears. No blame.
Line 4
九四 噬乾胏。得金矢。利艱貞。吉。
Nine in the fourth place means: Bites on dried gristly meat. Receives metal arrows. It furthers one to be mindful of difficulties And to be persevering. Good fortune.
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
鬼守我廬，欲呼伯去；曾孫壽考，司命不許。與生相保。
A ghost haunts my dwelling, wishing to summon the elder away; yet the grandchild is blessed with long life -- the Lord of Fate does not permit it. Together they are kept safe.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder guard the threshold, and a ghost squats at the doorstep, trying to summon the household elder away. But the Director of Fate refuses the request: the grandchildren and great-grandchildren shall live to old age, their lifespans guaranteed. The spirit departs, and life is preserved. The Director of Fate (司命) is the celestial bureaucrat who governs the registry of life and death. The verse dramatizes a negotiation with death itself — and death loses. From Biting Through to Approach, earth rests above the lake as benevolent authority draws near. The cosmic judge who bites through injustice here bites through death's claim, and the family endures under divine protection.
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