頤 → 明夷
Hexagram 27: Nourishment → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
Line 3
六三 拂頤。貞凶。十年勿用。无攸利。
Six in the third place means: Turning away from nourishment. Perseverance brings misfortune. Do not act thus for ten years. Nothing serves to further.
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
五嶽四瀆，潤洽為德。行不失理，民賴恩福。
The Five Peaks and Four Waterways; their moistening bounty is virtue itself. Conduct does not stray from principle; the people rely upon this grace and blessing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain over thunder transforms into earth over fire — Darkening of the Light, brightness driven underground. The Five Sacred Mountains and Four Great Rivers moisten and nourish through their virtue. Conduct does not depart from principle, and the people rely on this grace and blessing. Paradoxically, this verse of benign governance appears under Darkening of the Light, the hexagram of the sage who dims his own brilliance to survive tyranny. From Nourishment to Darkening of the Light, the transformation suggests that the truest nourishment operates invisibly: mountains and rivers sustain without display, just as the wise person 'uses obscurity to remain luminous.' The virtue that persists through darkness feeds the people more deeply than any visible splendor.
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