噬嗑 → 咸
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5, 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 3
六三 噬腊肉。遇毒。小吝。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Bites on old dried meat And strikes on something poisonous. Slight humiliation. No blame.
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
搖尾逐災，雲沉孽除；洿泥生粱，下為田主。
Wagging its tail, it chases disaster; clouds sink, misfortune fades. From muddy lowland, fine millet grows -- below becomes the master of the field.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder enforce the law, and here the verse presents a striking reversal of fortune. A creature wags its tail to chase away calamity; clouds descend and evils are purged. Then, from filthy mud, fine millet grows — and the lowly laborer becomes master of the fields. The tail-wagging image suggests a dog driving off misfortune, a folk apotropaic motif. The mud-to-millet transformation is the verse's core: the most polluted ground produces the finest grain. From Biting Through to Influence, the lake rests upon the mountain, moisture descending to nourish from above. The receptive emptiness of Influence allows the impure to be transmuted — one who opens to change can convert even the filthiest circumstances into abundance.
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