噬嗑 → 渙
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 59: Dispersion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 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 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 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
桃雀竊脂，巢於小枝；搖動不安，為風所吹。寒心慄慄，常憂不殆。
Sparrows steal fat, nesting on a slender twig; shaken and unsteady, blown by the wind. Cold at heart and trembling -- ever fearful, yet not destroyed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder enforce the law, and here a small bird perches in terrible vulnerability. A sparrow steals fat from the mulberry, nesting on a slender twig that sways and shudders. Unstable, unsafe — the wind blows and the nest trembles. The heart chills with dread, constant worry, yet somehow no final catastrophe arrives. The 'sparrow stealing fat' (桃雀竊脂) suggests a creature living beyond its means, perched on a branch too thin to support it. From Biting Through to Dispersion, wind moves over water, scattering what was gathered. The verse captures perpetual anxiety without resolution: the sparrow is never destroyed, but never secure. Dispersion's wind keeps the tiny nest endlessly shaking.
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