晉 → 需
Hexagram 35: Progress → Hexagram 5: Waiting
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 6 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 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 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 5
六五 悔亡。失得勿恤。往吉无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: Remorse disappears. Take not gain and loss to heart. Undertakings bring good fortune. Everything serves to further.
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
前涉溽暑,解不可取,離河三里,敗我利市,老牛病馬,去之何悔?
Wading forward through sweltering heat; relief cannot be seized. Three li from the river; my profitable market is ruined. An old ox, a sick horse — what regret in letting them go?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire rises above the earth, but the traveler advances into sweltering heat with no relief in sight. Wading through midsummer's oppressive humidity, unable to find respite, stranded three li from the river — commerce is ruined and the market trip fails. An old ox and a sick horse: what regret is there in letting them go? The verse layers misfortune upon misfortune, each image of exhaustion compounding the last. The merchant who presses forward at the wrong season, with broken-down animals and no access to water, embodies futile persistence. From Progress to Waiting, the transformation is apt: clouds gather above heaven but the rain has not yet come. True wisdom here lies in patience — knowing when advance is premature and rest is the only profitable course.
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