Hexagram 32: Duration → Hexagram 2: The Receptive

Duration
Thunder / Wind
The Receptive
Earth / Earth
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4).

Line 2

九二 悔亡。

huǐregrets
wángpass

Nine in the second place means: Remorse disappears.

Line 3

九三 不恆其德。或承之羞。貞吝。

lacking
héngcontinuity
in
character
huòperhaps
chéngaccept
zhīin
xiūunworthiness
zhēnto persist
lìnis embarrassment

Nine in the third place means: He who does not give duration to his character Meets with disgrace. Persistent humiliation.

Line 4

九四 田无禽。

tiánthe field
is nothing without
qíngame

Nine in the fourth place means: No game in the field.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramThunder EarthThe Arousing → The Receptive
Lower TrigramWind EarthThe Gentle → The Receptive

Yilin Verse

燕雀衰老,悲鴻入海,憂不在鄉,差池其羽。

Sparrows and swallows grow old; the grieving swan enters the sea. Sorrow lies not in the homeland; its wing-feathers fall uneven.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Thunder above wind transforms into doubled earth — the Receptive's boundless yielding. Sparrows and swallows grow old and feeble; a grieving swan plunges into the sea. Sorrow lies not in the homeland but abroad, and the bird's feathers are uneven, recalling the Shijing ode where the swallow's ragged pinions signal a woman's difficult journey. Duration's steady rhythm dissolves into earth's passive vastness: what once held firm now drifts without anchor. The aging birds lose their power of flight; the swan's grief drives it to exile over open water. From Duration to the Receptive, constancy gives way to exhaustion — the enduring pattern has run its course, and what remains is the sorrow of diminished capacity in a world too vast to navigate alone.

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