无妄 → 臨
Hexagram 25: Innocence → Hexagram 19: Approach
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 不耕穫。不菑畬。則利有攸往。
Six in the second place means: If one does not count on the harvest while plowing, Nor on the use of the ground while clearing it, It furthers one to undertake something.
Line 4
九四 可貞。无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: He who can be persevering Remains without blame.
Line 5
九五 无妄之疾。勿藥有喜。
Nine in the fifth place means: Use no medicine in an illness Incurred through no fault of your own. It will pass of itself.
Line 6
上九 无妄。行有眚。无攸利。
Nine at the top means: Innocent action brings misfortune. Nothing furthers.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
蝃蝀充側，佞幸傾惑。女謁橫行，正道壅塞。
The rainbow looms at every side; sycophants beguile and confuse. Women's influence runs unchecked; the righteous way is blocked.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Rainbows crowd the periphery — the Shijing's 'Didong' ode warns that the rainbow is a sign of illicit desire and disordered yin. Sycophants and favorites bewitch the court, women's petitions dominate, and the proper Way is blocked. From Innocence to Approach, the transformation sharpens the irony: Lin means to draw near with authority, as earth overhangs the lake in supervisory proximity. Yet the approach here is contaminated. Those who draw near the ruler are not the worthy but the flattering and seductive, and their closeness chokes the channels of honest governance. The verse warns that Wuwang's innocence is most vulnerable at the threshold of power, where proximity without integrity corrupts the entire system.
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