蒙 → 明夷
Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 6).
Line 1
初六 發蒙。利用刑人。用說桎梏。以往吝。
Six at the beginning means: To make a fool develop It furthers one to apply discipline. The fetters should be removed. To go on in this way bring humiliation.
Line 2
九二 包蒙吉。納婦吉。子克家。
Nine in the second place means: To bear with fools in kindliness brings good fortune. To know how to take women Brings good fortune. The son is capable of taking charge of the household.
Line 3
六三 勿用取女。見金夫。不有躬。无攸利。
Six in the third place means: Take not a maiden who, when she sees a man of bronze, Loses possession of herself. Nothing furthers.
Line 6
上九 擊蒙。不利為寇。利禦寇。
Nine at the top means: In punishing folly It does not further one To commit transgressions. The only thing that furthers Is to prevent transgressions.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
不虞之患，禍至無門。奄忽暴卒，痛傷我心。
Disaster not foreseen; calamity arrives through no gate. Sudden and violent death; wounding our hearts with grief.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A spring beneath the mountain is struck by calamity from nowhere. Unforeseen disaster arrives without warning, entering through no identifiable gate. Death comes sudden and violent, piercing the heart with pain. The verse is a raw cry of grief — no allusion, no metaphor, only the shock of loss that arrives before comprehension. From Youthful Folly to Darkening of the Light, the transformation is harrowing. Fire sinks beneath the earth; brightness is wounded and forced underground. The naif who had not yet learned to anticipate danger is crushed by a blow that even the wise could not have foreseen. In the landscape of Darkening, one must use obscurity skillfully — but first one must survive the initial wound.
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