離 → 歸妹
Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire → Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
Line 2
六二 黃離。元吉。
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。
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 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
南至之日，陽消不息，北風烈寒，萬物伏藏。
The day of the southern solstice; yang wanes without ceasing. The north wind blows fierce and cold; the ten thousand things lie hidden.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Doubled fire meets thunder above the lake: brilliance reaches its southernmost extreme and reverses. At the day of the winter solstice, yang wanes without ceasing. The north wind blows bitterly cold, and the myriad creatures conceal themselves. The 'southern extreme' (nan zhi) refers to the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its lowest arc — paradoxically its most southern point marks the moment yang begins to decline. The north wind seizes the landscape and all life withdraws. From The Clinging to the Marrying Maiden, fire's brightness encounters the irrevocable commitment of thunder following the lake. The verse captures the moment when fire's radiance has been fully spent in the southward journey, and the world enters a period of necessary concealment — a winter that even brilliance cannot prevent.
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