Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 27: Nourishment

Deliverance
Thunder / Water
Nourishment
Mountain / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).

Line 1

初六 无咎。

no
jiùblame

Six at the beginning means: Without blame.

Line 2

九二 田獲三狐。得黃矢。貞吉。

tián(in) (a
huò(and) take
sānthree
foxes
earn
huángthe golden
shǐarrow(s)
zhēnpersistence
promising

Nine in the second place means: One kills three foxes in the field And receives a yellow arrow. Perseverance brings good fortune.

Line 4

九四 解而拇。朋至斯孚。

jiěrelease
éryour
big toe
péng(when) companion
zhìapproach
(in
trust

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。

gōng(the) duke
yòngtakes
shè(his) aim at
sǔn(a
up on
gāo(a
yōngbattlement
zhī...'s
shàngpeak
huò(to) succeed(ing)
zhī(is) here
without
doubt
worthwhile

Six at the top means: The prince shoots at a hawk on a high wall. He kills it. Everything serves to further.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramThunder MountainThe Arousing → Keeping Still
Lower TrigramWater ThunderThe Deep → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

陽春枯槁,夏多水潦。霜雹俱擊,傷我禾黍,年歲困苦。

Spring drought withers the crops; summer brings too much rain and flood. Frost and hail strike together, destroying our grain and millet. The year is one of hardship and suffering.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Thunder over water dissolves into the mountain resting above thunder — the careful nourishment of the mouth. Spring brings drought instead of rain; summer brings floods instead of warmth. Frost and hail strike together, damaging grain and millet, and the harvest year is one of hardship. Every season delivers the wrong element at the wrong time: a calendar of agricultural misfortune. From Deliverance to Nourishment, the transformation is bitter — the freed community cannot feed itself. The mountain above thunder counsels restraint in speech and moderation in diet, but when the harvest fails entirely, moderation becomes involuntary fasting. Nourishment denied is the cruelest form of liberation.

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