解 → 漸
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 53: Development
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
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.
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.
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
一年九鎖,更相牽攣。案明如市,不得東西。請讞得報,日中被刑。
Nine locks in a single year, each pulling and binding the next. The case laid bare as in a marketplace, no freedom east or west. The plea is submitted and the verdict returned; at midday the sentence falls.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water advances slowly into wind above the mountain — the gradual development that cannot be rushed. Nine locks in a single year, each shackle pulling upon the next. The case is as public as a marketplace, yet one cannot move east or west. A petition is submitted and the verdict returned: execution at midday. The verse describes judicial entrapment — cascading legal binds, public exposure, a death sentence carried out at the hour of maximum visibility. From Deliverance to Development, the irony is savage: the hexagram of gradual, natural progression here manifests as the slow, inexorable tightening of a legal noose. Each step of 'development' brings the prisoner closer to the scaffold.
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