明夷 → 需
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 5: Waiting
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 5).
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 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
童女无室，未有配合，空坐獨宿。
A young woman without a home; she has no match or union. She sits alone through the empty night.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire pressed beneath the earth mirrors a young woman sitting alone, unmatched and waiting. Clouds gather above heaven in the image of Waiting — nourishment will come, but not yet. The verse is spare: 'A maiden without a home, no mate to join her; she sits empty, sleeping alone.' This is the desolation of unrecognized worth, a human echo of Darkening of the Light's buried fire. No allusion adorns the scene; the image is self-sufficient. From Darkening of the Light to Waiting, the transformation insists that what is hidden must endure the interval. The maiden's solitude is not abandonment but the season before clouds yield rain, before heaven's nourishment descends to earth.
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