Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 40: Deliverance

Opposition
Fire / Lake
Deliverance
Thunder / Water
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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 WaterThe Joyous → The Deep

Yilin Verse

孤竹之墟,失婦无夫。傷於蒺藜,不見其妻。東郭棠姜,武子以亡。

The ruins of Guzhu; the wife lost, the husband gone. Wounded by thorns and brambles; he does not see his wife. Dongguo Tang Jiang; by Wuzi he was undone.

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

Commentary

Fire above the lake, and the ruins of Guzhu echo with loss. A wife vanishes, a husband is gone — wounded by thorns and briars, one cannot find one's spouse. Then the verse names the historical parallel directly: Dongguo Tangjiang and the destruction of Wuzi. According to the Zuo Zhuan, Cui Zhu of Qi married the beautiful Tangjiang from the Dongguo clan, but Duke Zhuang of Qi conducted an affair with her. Cui Zhu murdered the duke in 548 BC, triggering a chain of vengeance that consumed his own clan. The ruins of Guzhu — the ancient state of the brothers Boyi and Shuqi — frame this as a place where loyalty and betrayal intertwine fatally. From Opposition to Deliverance, thunder and rain clear the air; the gentleman pardons faults and forgives transgressions.

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