剝 → 旅
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
三奇六耦，相隨俱市。王孫善賈，先得利寶。居止不安，洪水為咎。
Three odd, six even; following one another to market. The prince is a shrewd merchant, first to gain the profitable treasure. Yet one's dwelling is not secure; floodwaters bring misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth erodes into fire above the mountain — the Wanderer, the hexagram of the traveler who must be careful with what little he carries. Three odd and six even — the numbers of divination itself — follow one another to the marketplace. A prince skilled in trade acquires treasures first. Yet the dwelling is unstable, and floodwaters bring disaster. The verse opens with commercial success: the merchant-prince who reads the market's pattern prospers. But the second half reverses: one cannot settle, and water threatens everything. This is the Wanderer's essential condition — profit without permanence, skill without a home. From Splitting Apart to the Wanderer, the mountain that once provided a fixed abode has crumbled. What remains is the skill of reading patterns and trading wisely, but no ground on which to build lasting shelter.
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