明夷 → 乾
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 明夷。夷于左股。用拯馬壯吉。
Six in the second place means: Darkening of the light injures him in the left thigh. He gives aid with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Line 4
六四 入于左腹。獲明夷之心。于出門庭。
Six in the fourth place means: He penetrates the left side of the belly. One gets at the very heart of the darkening of the light, And leaves gate and courtyard.
Line 5
六五 箕子之明夷。利貞。
Six in the fifth place means: Darkening of the light as with Prince Chi. Perseverance furthers.
Line 6
上六 不明晦。初登于天。後入于地。
Six at the top means: Not light but darkness. First he climbed up to heaven, Then plunged into the depths of the earth.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
踐履寒冰，十步九尋，雖有苦痛，不為憂病。
Treading on cold ice; ten steps, nine fathoms deep. Though there is bitter pain, it does not become grief or illness.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire buried beneath the earth meets pure heaven in unbroken ascent. The verse depicts treading on frost and ice, each of ten steps probing a fathom's depth of danger, yet despite the bitter pain, the traveler refuses to count it as illness. This echoes the opening of the Kun hexagram's line text — 'treading on frost, solid ice will come' — but inverts its counsel of dread into a declaration of resilience. Where Darkening of the Light conceals brilliance underground, the transformation toward the Creative reveals the stance that survives the concealment: self-generating strength that treats adversity as a training ground rather than a sentence. The one who walks on ice without complaint has already internalized heaven's tireless motion.
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