頤 → 隨
Hexagram 27: Nourishment → Hexagram 17: Following
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
Line 4
六四 顛頤。吉。虎視眈眈。其欲逐逐。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: Turning to the summit For provision of nourishment Brings good fortune. Spying about with sharp eyes Like a tiger with insatiable craving. No blame.
Line 5
六五 拂經。居貞吉。不可涉大川。
Six in the fifth place means: Turning away from the path. To remain persevering brings good fortune. One should not cross the great water.
Line 6
上九 由頤。厲吉。利涉大川。
Nine at the top means: The source of nourishment. Awareness of danger brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
生不逢時，困且多憂。無有冬夏，心常悲愁。
Born out of time; beset and full of worry. Neither winter nor summer brings relief; the heart is ever steeped in sorrow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain over thunder, the nourishing stillness, gives way to lake over thunder — Following. Born at the wrong time, beset and burdened with worry, knowing neither winter nor summer's relief, the heart perpetually grieves. The verse is a pure lament without resolution: time itself has become hostile, and no season brings comfort. From Nourishment to Following, the transformation is bitter. Following requires adapting to the time, yet this person finds no time worth following. The lake's joyful surface over thunder's dormant energy should offer rest — 'the gentleman at nightfall enters to feast and repose' — but for one born out of season, even the rhythm of following yields only sorrow.
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