解 → 剝
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4).
Line 2
九二 田獲三狐。得黃矢。貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: One kills three foxes in the field And receives a yellow arrow. Perseverance brings good fortune.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
申酉退跌，陰慝前作。柯條花枝，復泥不白。
In the hours of Shen and You, things retreat and stumble; yin wickedness rises ahead. Boughs, twigs, and blossoming branches sink back into the mire, unable to emerge white.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water subsides into the mountain resting upon earth — the slow stripping away. The hours of Shen and You (mid-afternoon to evening) bring decline; dark forces advance. Branches and blossoms that once flourished are dragged back into the mud, unable to whiten again. The verse uses the earthly branches as time markers: the westward turn of the day signals waning yang. Flowers fouled by mud cannot recover their purity. From Deliverance to Splitting Apart, the release achieved proves temporary. The mountain erodes from below, and what was freed slowly loses its form — petals returning to earth, brightness returning to darkness.
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