睽 → 小畜
Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5).
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?
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
凶聲醜言，惡不可聞。君子舍之，往恨我心。
Wicked sounds and ugly words; evil that cannot be endured. The gentleman abandons them; what he leaves wounds my heart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above the lake, two natures clashing, and from the friction comes vicious speech. Ugly sounds and foul words fill the air, so repellent they cannot be endured. The gentleman withdraws from such pollution, turning away — yet departure brings its own anguish, a lingering regret that gnaws at the heart. The verse captures a painful dilemma: staying means contamination, leaving means sorrow. There is no clean exit from a corrupted environment. From Opposition to Small Taming, wind moves across heaven, gently cultivating virtue through refinement rather than force. The transformation suggests that the proper response to vilification is not counter-attack but quiet self-cultivation — the wind that polishes without breaking.
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