Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 53: Development

Deliverance
Thunder / Water
Development
Wind / Mountain
Changing LinesStable Lines

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。

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 3

六三 負且乘。致寇至。貞吝。

shouldering
qiěwhile
chéngmounted
zhìinviting
kòuthieves
zhìto approach
zhēnpersistence
lìn(is) embarrassing

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。

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 5

六五 君子維有解。吉。有孚于小人。

jūnnoble
young one
wéiin bondage
yǒu(still
jiěfreedom(s)
promising
yǒubeing
true
for
xiǎo(the) small
rénones

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。

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 WindThe Arousing → The Gentle
Lower TrigramWater MountainThe Deep → Keeping Still

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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