遯 → 大畜
Hexagram 33: Retreat → Hexagram 26: Great Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 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 2
六二 執之用黃牛之革。莫之勝說。
Six in the second place means: he holds him fast with yellow oxhide. No one can tear him loose.
Line 4
九四 好遯。君子吉。小人否。
Nine in the fourth place means: Voluntary retreat brings good fortune to the superior man And downfall to the inferior man.
Line 5
九五 嘉遯貞吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Friendly retreat. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
左跌右僵，前躓觸桑，其指據石，傷其弟兄，老蚕不作，家無織帛，貴貨賤身，久留連客。
Stumbling left, falling right; tripping forward into the mulberry. His fingers clutch at stone; injuring his brothers. The old silkworms do not spin; the house has no woven cloth. Prizing goods over self; a lingering guest long detained.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the mountain compresses into mountain over heaven — Great Taming, where heaven is stored within the mountain's mass. The verse is a catalogue of misfortune: stumbling left and collapsing right, tripping forward into mulberry trees, fingers clutching stone in desperation. Brothers are injured; old silkworms cease to spin; the household has no silk cloth. Goods are valued but people degraded; guests linger too long and cannot leave. Every image conveys entrapment and resource failure — a household that has accumulated nothing despite retaining everything. From Retreat to Great Taming, withdrawal should produce stored wealth, but here the taming has gone wrong. The mountain holds heaven but crushes it. What was meant to be preserved is instead damaged, and the one who retreated finds himself imprisoned by his own stockpile of misfortune.
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