大畜 → 解
Hexagram 26: Great Taming → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 有厲。利已。
Nine at the beginning means: Danger is at hand. It furthers one to desist.
Line 3
九三 良馬逐。利艱貞。曰閑輿衛。利有攸往。
Nine in the third place means. A good horse that follows others. Awareness of danger, With perseverance, furthers. Practice chariot driving and armed defense daily. It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
Line 4
六四 童牛之牿。元吉。
Six in the fourth place means: The headboard of a young bull. Great good fortune.
Line 6
上九 何天之衢。亨。
Nine at the top means: One attains the way of heaven. Success.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
清人高子，久在外野。逍遙不歸，思我慈母。
The man of Qing, Gao Zi, long stationed in the open wilds. Wandering at ease, he does not return; he thinks of his loving mother.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven stored within the mountain gives way to thunder above water — Deliverance. The 'men of Qing' and Commander Gao — long stationed in the frontier wilds, wandering idly without returning home, thinking of their loving mother. This directly references the Shijing poem 'Qing Ren' from the Odes of Zheng, which describes the garrison of Zheng soldiers under General Gao Ke stationed at Qing. The troops idled at the frontier while their commander was too dissolute to lead them home. Eventually the army scattered. From Great Taming to Deliverance, the mountain's stored heaven becomes the releasing storm of thunder and rain. But release here is bittersweet: the soldiers long for home but cannot return. Deliverance requires someone to untie the knot, and Gao Ke never does.
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