噬嗑 → 姤
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 5).
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 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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
失儷後旅，天門地戶；不知所在，安止無咎。
Losing one's companion, left behind on the road; between heaven's gate and earth's threshold, not knowing where one is. Settling in stillness brings no blame.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder enforce the law, but the traveler has lost both companion and direction. Separated from one's mate, trailing behind others — between heaven's gate and earth's door, one no longer knows where anything is. Yet the verse resolves gently: settling peacefully brings no blame. The 'heaven's gate and earth's door' (天門地戶) are cosmological landmarks marking the boundaries of the knowable world. Lost between them means being adrift in the cosmos itself. From Biting Through to Coming to Meet, heaven spreads above the wind. The unexpected encounter arrives from below, unbidden. The verse counsels that when utterly lost, the wisest response is stillness — and what was meant to find you will come of its own accord.
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