解 → 歸妹
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).
Line 1
初六 无咎。
Six at the beginning means: Without blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
春桃生花，季女宜家。受福多年，男為邦君。
Red candles cast twin shadows; they drink from crossed cups at the wedding. A cassia tree planted before the courtyard — every year, a branch is broken off in triumph.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water releases into thunder above the lake — the irrevocable commitment of the Marrying Maiden. The original verse reads: 'Spring peach bursts into bloom; the young woman suits her new household. Receiving blessings for many years, her son becomes lord of the state.' This is a direct echo of the Shijing's 'Tao Yao' wedding ode: the peach tree blossoming signals an auspicious marriage that brings lasting fertility and political fortune. From Deliverance to Marrying Maiden, the release from one condition commits to another — marriage is both liberation and permanent bond. Thunder over the lake: the gentleman understands endings within beginnings, knowing that this joyful union will also know its seasons of decline.
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