家人 → 渙
Hexagram 37: The Family → Hexagram 59: Dispersion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3).
Line 1
初九 閑有家。悔亡。
Nine at the beginning means: Firm seclusion within the family. Remorse disappears.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
解商驚惶，散我衣裝，君不安邦。
The merchants are startled and alarmed; our garments and goods are scattered. The lord cannot secure the realm.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind from fire is scattered as the family's bonds dissolve. The merchants are startled and panicked; clothing and possessions are stripped away. The ruler cannot maintain his state. The verse is terse and bleak — in just three phrases it captures commercial ruin, material loss, and political collapse. 'Dissolving the merchants' suggests that trade networks are disrupted, the economic sinews that bind communities torn apart. From The Family to Dispersion, wind moves across the water, scattering what was gathered. Dispersion is the hexagram of dissolution — sometimes necessary to clear stagnation, but here experienced as pure loss. The family's fabric unravels as goods, garments, and governance all fly apart in the wind.
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