睽 → 既濟
Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 63: After Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 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 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
先易後否，告我利市。騷蘇自苦，思吾故止。
First ease, then hardship; it tells me the market is profitable. Restless and bitter of its own accord; yet I reflect, and therefore I stop.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above the lake, and the market's fortune reverses course. What begins easily ends in obstruction — 'first ease, then negation.' Yet the oracle speaks of favorable trading: 'it announces a profitable market.' The second half shifts tone entirely: one toils and frets in self-imposed anxiety, then reflects and decides to stop. The verse captures the wisdom of knowing when to cease: initial success tempts further engagement, but the prudent trader recognizes the turn and withdraws before loss compounds. From Opposition to After Completion, water rests above fire in perfect but precarious balance, and the gentleman thinks of danger in advance to prevent it. The transformation from fluctuating fortune to accomplished order warns that completion is the moment of greatest vulnerability — one must guard it vigilantly.
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