明夷 → 姤
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6).
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 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
孤獨特處，莫依為輔，心勞志苦。
Alone and solitary, dwelling apart; with none to lean on or aid. The heart toils, the spirit suffers.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire beneath the earth encounters wind beneath heaven — Coming to Meet, where the unexpected appears from below. The verse is stark: 'Alone and solitary, with no one to lean on for support; the heart toils, the spirit suffers.' Three short phrases paint complete isolation — no companion, no patron, no refuge. Coming to Meet's image of wind under heaven suggests an encounter that arrives unbidden, but here nothing comes. The person waits in darkness and the wind brings nothing. From Darkening of the Light to Coming to Meet, the transformation holds both warning and faint hope: the very structure of the hexagram promises that an encounter will occur, even if the present moment offers only emptiness. What meets one in the dark may yet prove significant.
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