咸 → 大畜
Hexagram 31: Influence → Hexagram 26: Great Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 咸其拇。
Six at the beginning means: The influence shows itself in the big toe.
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
千仞之墻，禍不入門。金籠銕䟽，利以辟兵。欲南上阪，轉萬不轉，還車復反。
A wall of a thousand fathoms; disaster cannot enter the gate. Iron cage and metal bars; useful to ward off soldiers. Wishing to go south, up the slope; ten thousand turns, the cart will not turn. They reverse course and return.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake upon a mountain faces a wall a thousand fathoms high — calamity cannot enter the gate. Metal cages and iron lattices serve as barriers against armed threat. Yet when one tries to head south and climb the slope, the wheels refuse to turn even after ten thousand attempts, and the carriage must reverse course. The verse juxtaposes two kinds of security: the wall and the cage protect effectively, but the road itself refuses passage. From Influence to Great Taming, the mountain's receptive openness transforms into heaven stored within the mountain — vast power accumulated and restrained. The thousand-fathom wall embodies Great Taming's principle of containment, but the stalled carriage warns that what is stored must sometimes accept its own immobility. Not every stored force is meant to advance.
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