遯 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 33: Retreat → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5).
Line 1
初六 遯尾厲。勿用有攸往。
Six at the beginning means: At the tail in retreat. This is dangerous. One must not wish to undertake anything.
Line 3
九三 係遯。有疾厲。畜臣妾吉。
Nine in the third place means: A halted retreat Is nerve-wracking and dangerous. To retain people as men- and maidservants Brings good fortune.
Line 5
九五 嘉遯貞吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Friendly retreat. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
去惡就凶，東西多訟，行者無功。
Leaving evil, meeting misfortune; east and west, much litigation. The traveler achieves nothing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the mountain flashes into fire over thunder — Biting Through, where obstacles are forcibly removed through judicial action. The verse is stark: departing from evil, one encounters worse misfortune. East and west are filled with lawsuits, and the traveler accomplishes nothing. Every direction offers only conflict and futility. From Retreat to Biting Through, the mountain's strategic withdrawal gives way to the lightning bolt of enforced resolution. But the verse suggests that the retreat was merely from one evil into another — the traveler who fled trouble finds litigation everywhere. Biting Through demands decisive intervention to remove what obstructs; here, the retreating figure discovers that withdrawal alone cannot resolve disputes that follow wherever one goes.
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