剝 → 巽
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
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.
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
三人俱行，二人言北。伯仲欲南，少叔不得。中路分爭，道鬭相賊。
Three men travel together; two speak for north. The elder and second brother wish to go south; the youngest cannot prevail. Midway they quarrel; on the road they fight and wound each other.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth strips away, and doubled wind blows — the Gentle, where repeated influence penetrates gradually. Three men travel together; two advocate going north. The eldest and second brother want south, but the youngest cannot prevail. Midway the argument turns violent, and the companions attack one another on the road. The verse is a parable of collective decision-making that fails: three people, two preferred directions, escalating conflict. The doubled wind of Xun should repeat commands until compliance is achieved, but here the repeated argument produces not agreement but a roadside brawl. From Splitting Apart to the Gentle, the mountain's decay should open space for wind's subtle penetration, but wind meeting wind creates turbulence rather than harmony. When authority has been stripped away, even gentle persuasion becomes a weapon.
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