晉 → 未濟

Commentary

Fire rises above the earth, but the city garrison deploys like tumbleweeds scattered by the wind — directionless, purposeless, dangerous. To remain in such a position is perilous. The tumbling weed (zhuan peng) is one of the most vivid classical images of rootless displacement: a garrison that should protect the city instead whirls about without cohesion, threatening the very people it was meant to defend. From Progress to Before Completion, the transformation leaves everything unresolved. Fire above water — nearly there but not yet across. The garrison that cannot hold formation mirrors the fundamental condition of Before Completion: all the elements exist but they have not yet found their proper arrangement. The fox's tail dips in the water at the last crossing. Danger persists to the very end.