家人 → 兌
Hexagram 37: The Family → Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 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 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
何材待時，閉戶獨愁。蚯蚓冬行，解我无憂。桑蚕不得，女功弗成。
What talent awaits its time? Behind closed doors, he broods alone. An earthworm crawls in winter, releasing him from worry. Yet silkworms yield no silk; the woman's work is left undone.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind from fire illuminates the family's labors, but here talent waits behind closed doors. 'What timber awaits its season?' — the gifted person sits alone in anxiety, shut inside with nothing to do. Then an earthworm crawls in winter, and somehow worry dissolves. Yet the verse turns again: silkworms are raised but no silk is produced; the woman's work remains unfinished. The earthworm moving in winter — a creature active out of season — offers an oblique and paradoxical relief, as though nature's own rule-breaking momentarily lifts the paralysis. From The Family to The Joyous, paired lakes encourage mutual learning and shared delight. Joy comes through exchange, but this household is isolated, its products incomplete. The joyous lake remains just beyond the closed door.
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