咸 → 蒙
Hexagram 31: Influence → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 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 3
九三 咸其股。執其隨。往吝。
Nine in the third place means: The influence shows itself in the thighs. Holds to that which follows it. To continue is humiliating.
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
國馬生角，陰孽萌作，變易常服，君失于宅。
The state's horses sprout horns; dark portents begin to stir. They change and alter the proper garments; the ruler loses his dwelling.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake upon a mountain stirs mutual feeling, but here that feeling turns ominous. The state's horses sprout horns — an impossible portent signaling that natural categories have collapsed. Dark forces germinate in the shadows, people change their customary dress, and the ruler loses his seat. Horses growing horns is a classical omen of categorical inversion: what should be martial (horses) takes on the attributes of civil authority (horned animals like oxen), suggesting usurpation from within. From Influence to Youthful Folly, the mountain's receptive openness becomes the mountain over water of confused beginnings. What once was healthy mutual responsiveness degenerates into susceptibility to deception, and the ruler, too naive to recognize the dark portent, falls prey to forces he should have disciplined early.
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