恆 → 遯
Hexagram 32: Duration → Hexagram 33: Retreat
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
Line 2
九二 悔亡。
Nine in the second place means: Remorse disappears.
Line 5
六五 恒其德貞。婦人吉。夫子凶。
Six in the fifth place means: Giving duration to one's character through perseverance. This is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.
Line 6
上六 振恆凶。
Six at the top means: Restlessness as an enduring condition brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
爭訟之門，不可與鄰，出入為憂，生我心患。
At the gate of quarrels and lawsuits, one should not be a neighbor. Going out and coming in bring worry; it breeds affliction in my heart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder above wind, Duration's proximity, opens into heaven above mountain — Retreat's strategic withdrawal. A household given to litigation is no fit neighbor; comings and goings breed only worry and anxiety. The verse counsels avoidance: living beside a quarrelsome door invites constant trouble. Duration's closeness — the enduring presence of thunder and wind — becomes oppressive when what endures is conflict rather than harmony. The steady neighbor turns out to be a steady source of lawsuits. From Duration to Retreat, the transformation is decisive: when constancy produces only contention, the gentleman withdraws. Heaven rises above the mountain, placing distance between itself and the petty. Retreat here is not weakness but the wisdom to recognize that some proximities are not worth enduring.
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