咸 → 蠱
Hexagram 31: Influence → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 咸其腓。凶。居吉。
Six in the second place means: The influence shows itself in the calves of the legs. Misfortune. Tarrying brings good fortune.
Line 4
九四 貞吉悔亡。憧憧往來。朋從爾思。
Nine in the fourth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears. If a man is agitated in mind, And his thoughts go hither and thither, Only those friends On whom he fixes his conscious thoughts Will follow.
Line 5
九五 咸其脢。无悔。
Nine in the fifth place means: The influence shows itself in the back of the neck. No remorse.
Line 6
上六 咸其輔頰舌。
Six at the top means: The influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks, and tongue.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
登高傷軸，上阪棄粟，販鹽不利，買牛折角。
Climbing high, the axle breaks; ascending the slope, grain is abandoned. Selling salt without profit; buying an ox that breaks its horn.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake upon a mountain, but every venture meets with breakage. Climbing high, the axle snaps; ascending the slope, grain must be abandoned. A salt merchant finds no profit; a cattle buyer gets an ox with broken horns. Each image compounds the last: structural failure, wasted provisions, commercial loss, and damaged goods. The verse is a catalogue of entropy — everything touched deteriorates. From Influence to Work on the Decayed, the mountain's receptive openness transforms into wind trapped beneath the mountain, the image of corruption that must be remedied. The decay is not sudden but accumulated: these are things that broke because they were already weakened. The transformation suggests that what seems like bad luck is actually long-neglected maintenance finally demanding attention.
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