頤 → 師
Hexagram 27: Nourishment → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).
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 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
泥滓洿辱，棄捐溝瀆。眾所笑哭，終不顯祿。
Mud and filth bring disgrace; cast into ditch and gutter. Mocked and wept over by all; in the end, no glory or rank.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain over thunder, where nourishment should sustain, collapses into earth over water — the army's disciplined containment. Mud and filth stain and degrade; one is cast into ditches and drains, an object of universal mockery and tears, never to gain rank or recognition. The imagery is of someone discarded like waste, their nourishment withdrawn and their dignity stripped. From Nourishment to the Army, the transformation reveals the dark underside of collective order: where the army gathers and contains the multitude, those deemed unworthy are expelled to the margins. Nourishment denied becomes social death, and the disciplined mass has no place for the outcast.
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