Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire → Hexagram 10: Treading

The Clinging Fire
Fire / Fire
Treading
Heaven / Lake
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5).

Line 2

六二 黃離。元吉。

huánggolden
radiance
yuánmost
promising

Six in the second place means: Yellow light. Supreme good fortune.

Line 3

九三 日昃之離。不鼓缶而歌。則大耋之嗟。凶。

the sun
declines
zhīin
radiance
not
drumming
fǒuclay
érand
singing
leads to
much
diéold age
zhī's
jiēlament
xiōngunfortunate

Nine in the third place means: In the light of the setting sun, Men either beat the pot and sing Or loudly bewail the approach of old age. Misfortune.

Line 5

六五 出涕沱若。戚嗟若。吉。

chūissuing
tears
tuórunning water
ruòlike
grief
jiēand lament
ruòsuch
promising

Six in the fifth place means: Tears in floods, sighing and lamenting. Good fortune.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramFire HeavenThe Clinging → The Creative
Lower TrigramFire LakeThe Clinging → The Joyous

Yilin Verse

出令不勝,反為大災,強不克弱,君受其憂。

Issuing commands that cannot prevail; turning instead to great calamity. The strong cannot subdue the weak; the lord receives the sorrow.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Doubled fire meets heaven above the lake: brilliance oversteps its proper boundary. Commands are issued but cannot prevail; they rebound as great calamity. The strong fail to subdue the weak, and the ruler bears the consequences. The verse warns against authority exercised without proper standing. When edicts lack moral weight, enforcement collapses and the issuer suffers more than the target. From The Clinging to Treading, fire's assertive light encounters the protocol of treading upon a tiger's tail. The image of heaven over lake defines proper hierarchy, but the verse shows what happens when one treads carelessly: the tiger turns. Power projected without legitimacy does not merely fail; it transforms into the very disaster it sought to prevent.

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