晉 → 蒙
Hexagram 35: Progress → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 4).
Line 2
六二 晉如愁如。貞吉。受茲介福。于其王母。
Six in the second place means: Progressing, but in sorrow. Perseverance brings good fortune. Then one obtains great happiness from one's ancestress.
Line 4
九四 晉如鼫鼠。貞厲。
Nine in the fourth place means: Progress like a hamster. Perseverance brings danger.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
少無強輔，長不見母，勞心遠思，自傷憂苦。
Young, without a strong protector; grown, he never sees his mother. The heart toils in distant longing; he wounds himself with grief and sorrow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire rises above the earth, yet this brightness illuminates only loneliness. Young and without strong support, grown and never seeing one's mother — a figure labors in distant longing, wounded by grief and self-pity. The verse paints the orphan's predicament: no patron in youth to guide advancement, no maternal comfort in maturity to ease the heart. The ache is doubled by distance, the mind reaching toward what cannot be grasped. From Progress to Youthful Folly, the transformation is poignant: the bright advance above earth sinks into a spring trapped beneath the mountain. Without guidance or nurture, progress devolves into bewilderment — the young scholar who advances alone, unmentored, stumbles into the fog of inexperience.
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