剝 → 漸
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 53: Development
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 5, 6).
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
已動死連。商子揚沙，石流狐狢。擾軍鼓振，吏士恐落。
Already stirred, death follows. The Shang prince raises a sandstorm; stones flow, foxes and badgers scatter. The army's drums pound and shake; officers and soldiers tremble in dread.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth erodes into wind above mountain — Development, the hexagram of gradual, organic progress. Yet the verse opens with death in motion: 'Already stirring, death follows.' A merchant raises sand and dust, stones tumble and foxes scatter. The army drums beat to rally troops, but officers and soldiers fall in terror. According to commentary, the trigrams decode as Gen (sand, stones, foxes) stirred up by Xun (wind, commerce), with Kan (danger) lurking within. The sand-raising merchant disrupts the military order — civilian chaos bleeding into martial discipline. From Splitting Apart to Development, the mountain's erosion should nurture the tree growing upon it, but here the mountain crumbles into windblown sand that buries rather than nourishes. Development's patient gradualism is overwhelmed by the abruptness of cascading failure.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store