解 → 蒙
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 6).
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
防輿疲駟,不任衘轡。君子服之,談何容易。
A war carriage with weary steeds; they cannot bear the bit and bridle. The noble man undertakes the task — how easily said, how hard to do.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water dissolves into the mountain spring of youthful folly. A war chariot with broken crossbar and exhausted horses can no longer bear the reins. Even a gentleman who undertakes this task must concede — it is far from easy. The verse describes capability exceeded by burden: the vehicle of governance has deteriorated beyond what any driver can manage. Worn harness and spent steeds answer to no hand. From Deliverance to Youthful Folly, the transformation is sobering: the release from crisis does not guarantee competence. The spring emerging beneath the mountain has not yet learned its course; freedom without skill produces new confusion rather than progress.
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