遯 → 需
Hexagram 33: Retreat → Hexagram 5: Waiting
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
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 6
上九 肥遯无不利。
Nine at the top means: Cheerful retreat. Everything serves to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
三手六目，政多煩惑，皋陶瘖聾，亂不可從。
Three hands, six eyes; governance is troubled and confused. Gao Yao struck deaf and mute; in chaos, one cannot follow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the mountain dissolves into clouds suspended over heaven — Waiting. Three hands and six eyes: too many decision-makers breed chaos and confusion. Even if Gao Yao, the legendary minister of justice under Shun, were deaf and mute, disorder would be uncontrollable. The verse warns against governance by committee where overlapping authorities paralyze action. Gao Yao represents the ideal of singular, clear-sighted judicial wisdom; the verse invokes him only to negate him — even the greatest judge is powerless when the system itself is incoherent. From Retreat to Waiting, the mountain's disciplined withdrawal gives way to suspended tension. Clouds gather but refuse to rain. The disorder described is not lawlessness but institutional paralysis — too many hands grasping at a single steering wheel.
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