明夷 → 困
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
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.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
絕而復通，雖達不窮。終得其願，姬姜相從。
Severed yet made whole again; though reaching through, not exhausted. At last the wish is gained; the houses of Ji and Jiang follow together.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire beneath the earth meets the lake with no water — Oppression, yet the verse defies expectation with stubborn hope. 'Cut off, then reconnected; though reaching through, never exhausted. At last the wish is fulfilled — the Ji and Jiang clans join together.' The Ji (姬) and Jiang (姜) were the two great surname groups of the Zhou aristocracy, their intermarriage the backbone of feudal alliance. 'To reach one's desire' (得其願) through union of these houses signals political and familial fulfillment against all odds. From Darkening of the Light to Oppression, the doubled constraint — buried light meeting drained resources — paradoxically produces breakthrough, because the very extremity of the situation forces the decisive alliance that neither party would have accepted in easier times.
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