睽 → 乾
Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
六三 見輿曳。其牛掣。其人天且劓。无初有終。
Six in the third place means: One sees the wagon dragged back, The oxen halted, A man's hair and nose cut off. Not a good beginning, but a good end.
Line 5
六五 悔亡。厥宗噬膚。往何咎。
Six in the fifth place means: Remorse disappears. The companion bites his way through the wrappings. If one goes to him, How could it be a mistake?
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
被服文衣，遊觀酒池，上堂見觴。喜為吾兄，使我憂亡。
Clad in patterned robes; wandering to view the wine pool. Ascending the hall, he sees the goblet. Glad it is my brother; yet it makes me forget my sorrows.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above the lake, two natures estranged, yet here a figure dons embroidered robes and strolls through a wine pool. The imagery evokes King Zhou of Shang's infamous court: his Wine Pool and Meat Forest, where courtiers caroused in abandon while the realm unraveled. Ascending the hall, one finds goblets raised in fraternal welcome — 'rejoice, for you are my brother' — but the warmth curdles into dread, for such indulgence breeds annihilation. The brother who offers delight also brings the shadow of ruin. From Opposition to The Creative, heaven ceaselessly renews itself. Only when one recognizes the peril concealed within false joy does genuine self-generating initiative emerge — the will to act with disciplined vigor rather than drown in borrowed pleasure.
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