離 → 謙
Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire → Hexagram 15: Modesty
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 履錯然。敬之。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: The footprints run crisscross. If one is seriously intent, no blame.
Line 4
九四 突如其來如。焚如。死如。棄如。
Nine in the fourth place means: Its coming is sudden; It flames up, dies down, is thrown away.
Line 6
上九 王用出征。有嘉。折首。獲匪其醜。无咎。
Nine at the top means: The king uses him to march forth and chastise. Then it is best to kill the leaders And take captive the followers. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
壅遏隄防，水不得行，火盛陽光，陰蜺伏藏，走婦其歸。
Dikes and dams obstruct and block; water cannot flow. Fire blazes with yang's radiance; the shadowed rainbow hides away. The fleeing woman returns home.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Doubled fire meets the mountain hidden within earth: brilliance must learn to lower itself. Dams and embankments block the flow; water cannot pass. Fire blazes in full sunlight while the yin rainbow hides itself, and the runaway wife returns home. The verse maps a landscape of excess yang: too much light, too much heat, too much obstruction. Water, the feminine element, is blocked; the rainbow (an omen of yin-yang imbalance) conceals itself rather than display impropriety. From The Clinging to Modesty, fire's overbearing brightness must descend into the mountain concealed within the earth. True modesty requires the powerful to lower themselves, releasing the blocked flow so balance can be restored and the displaced can return.
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