无妄小畜

Hexagram 25: Innocence → Hexagram 9: Small Taming

无妄
Innocence
Heaven / Thunder
小畜
Small Taming
Wind / Heaven
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

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

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.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramHeaven WindThe Creative → The Gentle
Lower TrigramThunder HeavenThe Arousing → The Creative

Yilin Verse

鰌鰕去海,遊於枯里。街巷迫狹,不得自在。南北四極,渴餒成疾。

Loach and shrimp leave the sea; they wander in a dried-up lane. Streets and alleys, cramped and narrow; no room to move freely. North, south, to the four extremes; thirst and hunger become illness.

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

Commentary

Loaches and shrimp leave the ocean and wander into a dried-up village. The streets are cramped and narrow, affording no freedom of movement. Roaming from south to north to the four extremes, they grow parched and starved until illness overtakes them. From Innocence to Small Taming, the transformation captures the frustration of great capacity confined by modest circumstance. Wind moves above heaven in Xiaoxu, gently restraining without fully releasing — a subtle check that prevents breakthrough. The sea creatures stranded in shallow lanes embody this precisely: beings made for the open deep now hemmed in by forces too diffuse to confront directly, their energy slowly drained rather than dramatically blocked.

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