晉 → 升
Hexagram 35: Progress → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).
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 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
眾來得願，甘露溫潤，樂易君子，不逢禍亂。
The multitudes arrive, wishes fulfilled; sweet dew falls warm and moist. The contented gentleman at ease; he encounters no disaster or upheaval.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire rises above the earth, and the multitudes arrive, their wishes fulfilled. Sweet dew descends, warm and nourishing, and the genial gentleman encounters no turmoil or disaster. Sweet dew (ganlu) in Han political cosmology was the ultimate auspicious omen: heaven literally dripping nectar upon a virtuous realm. Its appearance confirmed that the ruler's moral cultivation had harmonized heaven and earth. From Progress to Pushing Upward, the transformation traces the mechanics of this blessing. Wood grows within the earth, rising patiently, accumulating small gains into great height. The sweet dew does not fall upon the ambitious — it falls upon the one who grew steadily upward through accumulated virtue, like a tree that ascends from within the soil without ever forcing its way.
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