剝 → 需
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 5: Waiting
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
上下惟邪，戾其元夫。歡心隔塞，君子離居。
Above and below all is perverse; estranging her rightful lord. Joyful hearts are blocked and sealed; the noble man dwells apart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth crumbles, giving way to clouds rising above heaven — water suspended, awaiting its moment. The verse describes a world where 'above and below are entirely crooked,' and even the upright husband is estranged. Joy and affection are blocked; the gentleman is forced to live apart. This is a court corrupted from top to bottom, where honest men cannot find shelter. The word 'xie' (crooked) appears emphatically, suggesting pervasive moral distortion that separates those who should be together. From Splitting Apart to Waiting, the decay of the old order creates a liminal space: the rain has not yet fallen, danger looms but has not struck. The gentleman's exile is itself a form of waiting — enduring separation until conditions change.
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