恆 → 升

Commentary

Thunder above wind, Duration's relentless rhythm, sinks into earth above wind — Pushing Upward's methodical ascent. Three wildcats hunt a mouse, blocking its front and rear. It dies within the crumbling wall, unable to escape. The image is a coordinated ambush: patient predators encircle their prey until all exits are sealed. Duration's persistence here belongs to the hunters, not the hunted — the sustained effort is that of the encirclement tightening slowly over time. From Duration to Pushing Upward, the wood grows steadily within the earth, rising through the soil. But from the mouse's perspective, the earth closes in from all sides. What looks like upward growth from one angle is burial from another. The verse warns that another's patient rising may be one's own slow entrapment.