解 → 蠱
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 6).
Line 3
六三 負且乘。致寇至。貞吝。
Six in the third place means: If a man carries a burden on his back And nonetheless rides in a carriage, He thereby encourages robbers to draw near. Perseverance leads to humiliation.
Line 4
九四 解而拇。朋至斯孚。
Nine in the fourth place means: Deliver yourself from your great toe. Then the companion comes, And him you can trust.
Line 6
上六 公用射隼于高墉之上。獲之无不利。
Six at the top means: The prince shoots at a hawk on a high wall. He kills it. Everything serves to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
水土相得，萬物蕃殖。膏澤優渥，君子有德。
Water and earth in harmony; the ten thousand things multiply and flourish. Rich rains and fertile moisture; the noble man possesses virtue.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water transforms into wind stirring beneath the mountain — the work of renovation. Water and earth complement each other, and all things multiply abundantly. Moisture and nourishment are generous, and the gentleman possesses virtue. The verse celebrates the ideal of natural cooperation: when water meets receptive earth, fertility is the result. From Deliverance to Work on the Decayed, the release of blocked energy does not merely restore the old order but enables renewal from within. Wind beneath the mountain stirs what has stagnated, and the gentleman's virtue acts like water on fertile soil — quietly generating new growth from the ruins of what was broken.
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