睽 → 困
Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 悔亡。喪馬勿逐自復。見惡人。无咎。
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 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?
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
大樹之子，百條共母。當夏六月，枝葉盛茂。鸞鳳以庇，召伯避暑。穉穉卭甚，各得其所。
Children of the great tree; a hundred branches share one mother. In the height of summer, the sixth month; boughs and leaves flourish thick. Phoenix and simurgh find shelter; the Duke of Shao escapes the heat. The tender young ones struggle; yet each finds its place.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above the lake, yet a great tree shelters all beneath its canopy. A hundred branches share a single mother-trunk. In the height of summer's sixth month, the foliage is lush and dense. Phoenixes and luan-birds take shelter in its shade, and the Duke of Shao rests from the heat beneath it — an allusion to the Shijing ode 'Gan Tang,' celebrating the Duke of Shao who administered justice under a sweet pear tree. Even the youngest and most vulnerable find their place. From Opposition to Oppression, the lake drains its water and the gentleman stakes his life to fulfill his purpose. The transformation reveals a paradox: the sheltering tree that resolves estrangement grows from the same pattern that, carried further, becomes the leafless lake of Oppression — abundance and depletion share a single root.
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