明夷 → 解
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4).
Line 1
初九 明夷于飛。垂其翼。君子于行。三日不食。有攸往。主人有言。
Nine at the beginning means: Darkening of the light during flight. He lowers his wings. The superior man does not eat for three days On his wanderings. But he has somewhere to go. The host has occasion to gossip about him.
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 3
九三 明夷于南狩。得其大首。不可疾貞。
Nine in the third place means: Darkening of the light during the hunt in the south. Their great leader is captured. One must not expect perseverance too soon.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
亡玉失鹿，不知所伏。利以避危，全我生福。甘雨時降，年歲有得。
The jade is lost, the deer vanished; one knows not where they hide. It profits one to avoid danger and preserve one's blessed life. Sweet rain falls in its season; the year's harvest is secured.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire beneath the earth gives way to thunder above water — Deliverance, where accumulated tension finds release. 'Losing the jade, losing the deer — not knowing where they hide. It is profitable to avoid danger and preserve one's blessed life.' The lost jade and deer are classical symbols of the mandate and the state: when both vanish, the wise person does not search blindly but retreats to safety. Then the tone shifts: 'Sweet rain falls in season; the harvest year yields its bounty.' After the withdrawal, nature provides. From Darkening of the Light to Deliverance, the transformation teaches that release comes not from grasping at what is lost but from strategic withdrawal that allows the natural order to reassert itself — as thunder and rain together dissolve the old impasse.
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