明夷 → 漸
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 53: Development
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
轉行軌軌，行近不遠。旦夕入門，與君笑言。
Wheels turning, track by track; the journey is near, not far. By morning and evening one enters the gate; sharing laughter and words with one's lord.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire beneath the earth grows as wood upon the mountain — Development, the gradual advance of a tree growing on a hillside, visible to all and steady in its progress. 'Turning the wheels, rolling smoothly — the journey is near, not far. Morning and evening one enters the gate, sharing laughter and conversation with the lord.' This is the return from exile or estrangement: the road that once stretched endlessly now brings the traveler home in a single day's circuit. From Darkening of the Light to Development, the transformation captures the slow resolution of distance. After the long night of buried light, the gradual approach replaces the dramatic rescue — one simply draws closer each day, until the gate is entered and companionship is restored naturally, like a tree growing toward the sunlight.
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