家人 → 歸妹
Hexagram 37: The Family → Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 无攸遂。在中饋。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: She should not follow her whims. She must attend within to the food. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 3
九三 家人嗃嗃。悔厲吉。婦子嘻嘻。終吝。
Nine in the third place means: When tempers flare up in the family, Too great severity brings remorse. Good fortune nonetheless. When woman and child dally and laugh It leads in the end to humiliation.
Line 4
六四 富家大吉。
Six in the fourth place means: She is the treasure of the house. Great good fortune.
Line 5
九五 王假有家。勿恤吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: As a king he approaches his family. Fear not. Good fortune.
Line 6
上九 有孚威如。終吉。
Nine at the top means: His work commands respect. In the end good fortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
駕車出門，順時宜西。福佑我身，安寧無患。
He readies the carriage and goes out the gate; the season favors traveling west. Blessings protect his person; peaceful and tranquil, without affliction.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind from fire sets the family in motion on a well-timed journey. Hitching the carriage and passing through the gate, the season calls for a westward course. Blessings protect the traveler, and the journey is peaceful and free from trouble. The verse radiates confidence in timing: the departure is not impulsive but aligned with the proper moment, and the direction is chosen deliberately. 'Following the season' implies consulting calendrical wisdom before setting out. From The Family to the Marrying Maiden, thunder stirs above the lake in the sudden animation of a young woman given in marriage. The westward journey may itself be a bridal procession — the family sending a daughter to her new home with heaven's blessing, arriving safely because the timing was right.
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