蒙 → 夬
Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 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 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 4
六四 困蒙。吝。
Six in the fourth place means: Entangled folly bring humiliation.
Line 5
六五 童蒙。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Childlike folly brings good fortune.
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
天之所壞，不可強支。眾口指笑，雖貴必危。
What heaven itself would destroy cannot be propped up by force. The crowd points and laughs; though noble, one must come to peril.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A spring beneath the mountain confronts an irreversible collapse. What heaven has decided to ruin cannot be propped up by force. The crowd points and laughs; however exalted one's position, danger is certain. The verse is a stark warning about the futility of resisting a mandate withdrawn. Public mockery confirms what cosmic judgment has already sealed — no amount of rank shields one from the consequences. From Youthful Folly to Breakthrough, the transformation takes the hexagram's decisive energy and turns it into a sentence: the lake rises above heaven, and what must be severed will be severed. The naif learns the harshest lesson: sometimes Breakthrough means being broken through, and the decisive cut falls upon oneself.
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