剝 → 夬
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 6 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 2
六二 剝牀以辨。蔑貞凶。
Six in the second place means: The bed is split at the edge. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune.
Line 3
六三 剝之无咎。
Six in the third place means: He splits with them. No blame.
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
高阜所在，陰氣不臨。洪水不處，為家利寶。
Where the high mound stands, yin vapors do not reach. Floodwaters do not settle there; it is the household's profitable treasure.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth decays into lake rising above heaven — Breakthrough, the decisive moment when accumulated yin is expelled. High ground stands where yin vapors cannot reach. Floodwaters do not settle here; this place is a family's treasure and protection. The verse describes elevation as salvation: by occupying the high point, one escapes both the miasma of low-lying corruption and the literal flood. The 'gao fu' (high mound) is the antithesis of the collapsing mountain — an eminence that endures because it rises above the destructive. From Splitting Apart to Breakthrough, the mountain that was eroding gives way to the lake bursting through its last restraint. But the wise have already ascended beyond the flood's reach. Breakthrough demands decisive action announced in the king's court; the high ground is the stance from which that announcement is made.
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