解 → 咸
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5).
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 5
六五 君子維有解。吉。有孚于小人。
Six in the fifth place means: If only the superior man can deliver himself, It brings good fortune. Thus he proves to inferior men that he is in earnest.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
登几上車，駕駟南遊。合散從橫，燕秦以強。
Mounting the platform and boarding the chariot, he drives four steeds south on a grand tour. Allying and sundering, weaving vertical and horizontal; Yan and Qin thereby grow strong.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water resolves into the lake resting atop the mountain — the mutual attraction of Influence. Mounting the carriage bench, harnessing four horses, one tours southward. Alliances are formed and dissolved, the vertical and horizontal strategies at play — and through this, Yan and Qin grow strong. The verse alludes to Warring States diplomacy: the persuaders who traveled by chariot between courts, forging the coalitions that reshaped the political landscape. From Deliverance to Influence, the storm's energy transforms into the magnetic pull of political attraction. Lake above mountain: openness crowning stillness. The diplomat's art lies not in force but in the mutual responsiveness that makes alliance irresistible.
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