Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 32: Duration

Opposition
Fire / Lake
Duration
Thunder / Wind
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 6).

Line 1

初九 悔亡。喪馬勿逐自復。見惡人。无咎。

huǐregret(s)
wángpass
sàng(a
horse
do not
zhú(be) pursue
(and) of
(it) returns
jiàn(to
è(the) evil
rén(in) people
is not
jiùto blame

Nine at the beginning means: Remorse disappears. If you lose your horse, do not run after it; It will come back of its own accord. When you see evil people, Guard yourself against mistakes.

Line 3

六三 見輿曳。其牛掣。其人天且劓。无初有終。

jiànseeing
輿(a
(being) held up
its
niúoxen
chèhindered
its
rénoccupant's
tiānhead shaved (bald to heaven)
qiěand (even
(his
regardless of
chū(a
yǒu(but) there is
zhōng(a

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 6

上九 睽孤。見豕負塗。載鬼一車。先張之弧。後說之弧。匪寇婚媾。往遇雨則吉。

kuíestranged
(and) (all) alone
jiànseeing
shǐ(a) pig
covered
filth
zàihaul
guǐdemons
(and
chēwagon
xiān(at) first
zhāngstretch
zhīhis
(long)bow
hòu(and
shuōrelaxing
zhīhis
(long)bow
fěiit
kòu(a
hūn(but) (a) marital
gòusuitor
wǎngin going
greet
(the) rain
(and
promising

Nine at the top means: Isolated through opposition, One sees one's companion as a pig covered with dirt, As a wagon full of devils. First one draws a bow against him, then one lays the bow aside. He is not a robber; he will woo at the right time. As one goes, rain falls; then good fortune comes.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramFire ThunderThe Clinging → The Arousing
Lower TrigramLake WindThe Joyous → The Gentle

Yilin Verse

孟巳乙丑,哀呼尼父。明德訖終,亂害滋起。

In the mengsi year, the yichou month; mournful cries for the sage Confucius. Bright virtue has reached its end; disorder and harm now arise.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Fire above the lake, and a mournful cry echoes across the ages. On a meng-si or yi-chou day, voices wail for 'Father Ni' — Confucius. The Master's luminous virtue has reached its end, and in its wake, chaos and harm multiply without restraint. Confucius died in 479 BC, and the Yilin treats this event as the hinge of civilization: once the sage's guiding light extinguished, the moral order disintegrated. The Spring and Autumn Annals cease, and the world enters darkness. From Opposition to Duration, thunder and wind reinforce each other endlessly as the gentleman stands firm without shifting ground. The transformation insists that what endures is not the sage's physical life but the principled stance he embodied — duration through unwavering commitment.

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