无妄大畜

Hexagram 25: Innocence → Hexagram 26: Great Taming

无妄
Innocence
Heaven / Thunder
大畜
Great Taming
Mountain / Heaven
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5).

Line 2

六二 不耕穫。不菑畬。則利有攸往。

when
gēngploughing
huòto
and when
clearing
in
then
worthwhile
yǒuto have
yōusomewhere
wǎngto go

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 3

六三 无妄之災。或繫之牛。行人之得。邑人之災。

one without
wàngpretense
zhīstill
zāimisfortune
huòas when somebody
tethers
zhīone's
niúox
xíngon the move
rénis
zhīhas
an
and is a
réninhabitant
zhī...'s
zāithe calamity

Six in the third place means: Undeserved misfortune. The cow that was tethered by someone Is the wanderer's gain, the citizen's loss.

Line 4

九四 可貞。无咎。

inviting
zhēnpersistence
is no
jiùwrong

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。

one without
wàngpretense
zhīstill
illness
do not
yàomedicate
yǒuto attain
happiness

Nine in the fifth place means: Use no medicine in an illness Incurred through no fault of your own. It will pass of itself.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramHeaven MountainThe Creative → Keeping Still
Lower TrigramThunder HeavenThe Arousing → The Creative

Yilin Verse

延頸望酒,不入我口。商人勞苦,利得無有。夏臺羑里,雖危復喜。

Craning one's neck, gazing toward wine; it never reaches my lips. The merchant toils bitterly; profit yields nothing. Xia Tai and Youli; though perilous, joy returns.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Craning the neck toward wine that never reaches the lips. The merchant toils but gains nothing for his trouble. Then the verse invokes Xiatai and Youli — the prisons of Tang and Wen — and pivots: though the situation is perilous, joy returns. From Innocence to Great Taming, the transformation captures the paradox of accumulation through deprivation. Daxu's image of heaven stored within the mountain suggests immense potential held in reserve. The merchant's fruitless labor and the unreachable wine both echo this containment: desire is present but fulfillment withheld. Yet the Tang-Wen allusion reframes suffering as treasury — what the mountain stores during imprisonment becomes the virtue that founds dynasties.

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