晉 → 明夷
Hexagram 35: Progress → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 晉如摧如。貞吉。罔孚。裕无咎。
Six at the beginning means: Progressing, but turned back. Perseverance brings good fortune. If one meets with no confidence, one should remain calm. No mistake.
Line 3
六三 眾允悔亡。
Six in the third place means: All are in accord. Remorse disappears.
Line 4
九四 晉如鼫鼠。貞厲。
Nine in the fourth place means: Progress like a hamster. Perseverance brings danger.
Line 6
上九 晉其角。維用伐邑。厲吉无咎。貞吝。
Nine at the top means: Making progress with the horns is permissible Only for the purpose of punishing one's own city. To be conscious of danger brings good fortune. No blame. Perseverance brings humiliation.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
右手無合，獨折左指，禹湯失佐，事功弗立。
The right hand finds no match; alone it breaks the left finger. Yu and Tang lost their ministers; their achievements could not be established.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire rises above the earth, yet brightness is about to sink. The right hand finds no partner, and the left finger is broken in solitude. Even Yu and Tang, the sage-founders of the Xia and Shang dynasties, would have failed without capable ministers to assist them — their great works could not have been accomplished alone. The verse stresses the indispensability of partnership: a single hand cannot clap. From Progress to Darkening of the Light, the transformation is the most natural pair in the sequence. Fire sinks into the earth; what was bright becomes hidden. Yu without Yi Yin, Tang without his advisors — the greatest rulers plunged into darkness when stripped of their right hand. Brilliance without support self-extinguishes.
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