剝 → 隨
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 17: Following
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 剝牀以足。蔑貞凶。
Six at the beginning means: The leg of the bed is split. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune.
Line 4
六四 剝牀以膚。凶。
Six in the fourth place means: The bed is split up to the skin. Misfortune.
Line 5
六五 貫魚。以宮人寵。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies. Everything acts to further.
Line 6
上九 碩果不食。君子得輿。小人剝廬。
Nine at the top means: There is a large fruit still uneaten. The superior man receives a carriage. The house of the inferior man is split apart.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
獮猴冠帶，盜載非位。眾犬共吠，麇走蹶足。
A monkey in cap and belt; a thief riding in a place not his own. The pack of dogs bark together; the deer stumbles and falls.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth strips away, yielding to lake over thunder — Following, where all things rest in the evening stillness. A monkey dons cap and sash, a thief riding in a position that is not his. The pack of dogs bark together, and the deer stampedes and stumbles. The 'capped monkey' (muhou guandai) is one of the most cutting political metaphors in the Chinese canon: an animal dressed in human finery, occupying a station it cannot fill. The dogs — instinctive judges of authenticity — see through the disguise and raise the alarm, while the herd panics. From Splitting Apart to Following, the erosion of legitimate authority creates a vacuum that impostors rush to fill. But Following demands genuine resonance between leader and led; a crowned ape commands only chaos.
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