睽 → 明夷
Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 2
九二 遇主于巷。无咎。
Nine in the second place means: One meets his lord in a narrow street. No blame.
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 4
九四 睽孤。遇元夫。交孚。厲无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Isolated through opposition, One meets a like-minded man With whom one can associate in good faith. Despite the danger, no blame.
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。
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
Yilin Verse
東家殺牛，行逆腥臊，神背西顧，命衰絕周。亳社災燒，宋人夷誅。
The eastern house slaughters an ox; the act is contrary, reeking and foul. The spirits turn west in revulsion; fate wanes and the Zhou line is severed. The Bo shrine burns in disaster; the people of Song are destroyed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above the lake, and sacrificial rites go fatally wrong. The eastern neighbor slaughters an ox in a transgressive manner, its offering reeking of blood and foulness, causing the spirits to turn their backs and look westward. Heaven's mandate withers, and the Zhou cosmic order expires. Then the Bo shrine — the ancient Shang altar preserved at Song — catches fire and burns, and the Song people are slaughtered and leveled. The Bo shrine was the sacred altar of the Shang dynasty, maintained by their descendants in the state of Song; its destruction symbolizes the final severing of a once-great lineage's spiritual connection. From Opposition to Darkening of the Light, brightness sinks into the earth, and the gentleman governs by concealing his illumination. When even the ancestral altar burns, the wise must hide their light to survive the darkness.
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