頤 → 渙
Hexagram 27: Nourishment → Hexagram 59: Dispersion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5).
Line 1
初九 舍爾靈龜。觀我朶頤。凶。
Nine at the beginning means: You let your magic tortoise go, And look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping. Misfortune.
Line 2
六二 顛頤。拂經于丘。頤征凶。
Six in the second place means: Turning to the summit for nourishment, Deviating from the path To seek nourishment from the hill. Continuing to do this brings misfortune.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
殷商以亡，火息無光。年歲不長，殷湯光明。
The Yin-Shang dynasty perishes; the fire dies, its light extinguished. The years do not endure long; yet Tang of Yin shines with radiance.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain over thunder gives way to wind over water — Dispersion, where the king crosses the great water to gather his people at the temple. The Shang dynasty perishes; the fire is extinguished, its light gone. The years will not be long. Then a dramatic reversal: 'King Tang shines bright.' The fall of Shang and the rise of Tang are collapsed into a single breath — the same dynastic name, Shang, contains both its founding glory and its terminal decay. Tang, who overthrew the Xia from imprisonment at Xia Tai, embodies the phoenix-principle: light reborn from its own ashes. From Nourishment to Dispersion, the transformation scatters the old order so that a new center can form. The wind on the water disperses corruption, and what was extinguished reignites at the ancestral temple.
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