離 → 小畜
Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5).
Line 2
六二 黃離。元吉。
Six in the second place means: Yellow light. Supreme good fortune.
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 5
六五 出涕沱若。戚嗟若。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Tears in floods, sighing and lamenting. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
夫婦不諧，為燕攻齊，良弓不張，騎駟憂凶。
Husband and wife in discord; for Yan, they attack Qi. A fine bow unstrung; the four-horse team brings sorrow and misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Doubled fire meets wind above heaven: brilliance is restrained but strains against its limits. Husband and wife cannot harmonize; it is as if Yan were attacking Qi. A fine bow lies unstrung, and the team of four horses portends misfortune. The allusion to 'Yan attacking Qi' recalls the chronic Spring and Autumn conflict between these neighboring states, where aggression born from proximity repeatedly failed. An unstrung bow wastes its potential; horses without direction bring only danger. From The Clinging to Small Taming, fire's assertive clarity is checked by gentle wind. When the small tries to restrain the great through force rather than moral persuasion, the result is domestic discord writ large, a household and a state alike torn by misaligned ambitions.
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