明夷 → 未濟
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 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 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 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
桃弓葦戟，除殘去惡，敵人執服。
Peachwood bows and reed-stalk halberds; they cast out the wicked and expel the evil. The enemy submits and surrenders.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire beneath the earth becomes fire above water — Before Completion, the final hexagram, where nothing yet occupies its proper place but the trajectory toward order is visible. 'Peach-wood bows and reed halberds — they eliminate the wicked and remove the evil; the enemy submits and serves.' The peach bow and reed spear are ritual implements of the Nuo exorcism ceremony, the great year-end rite where masked dancers drove out demons and pestilence. These are not weapons of war but instruments of purification — evil is expelled through ritual rather than violence. From Darkening of the Light to Before Completion, the final transformation holds open the promise that the long night ends not in battle but in cleansing. The disorder is real, but the tools to address it are already in hand, waiting for the ceremony to begin.
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