噬嗑 → 明夷
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 6).
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 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
鳥鳴捕鷇，長欲飛去；循枝上下，適與風遇。顛隕樹根，命不可救。
A bird cries, seizing its fledgling, longing to fly away; hopping along the branch, up and down -- it meets the wind by chance. Tumbling down to the tree's roots, its fate cannot be saved.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder enforce the law, and here the verse tells a tale of fatal misjudgment in nature. A bird calls out to its fledgling, eager for its first flight. The young bird hops along branches, climbing up and down, and just as it launches — a gust of wind strikes. It tumbles, crashes to the tree's roots, and its life cannot be saved. The image is of premature action meeting unforeseen catastrophe: the fledgling was not ready, and the wind was merciless. From Biting Through to Darkening of the Light, the sun sinks into the earth. The verse captures the moment when brightness is extinguished — a promising life cut short by bad timing, the light driven underground before it could fully shine.
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