解 → 既濟
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 63: After Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Line 1
初六 无咎。
Six at the beginning means: Without blame.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
上政搔擾，螟䖝並起。害我嘉穀，年歲无稷。
The government above harasses and disturbs; locusts and pests rise together. They devour our fine grain; the year yields no millet.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water completes into water above fire — the precarious balance of After Completion. Government from above harasses and disturbs; crop-eating insects rise in swarms. They ravage the fine grain, and the year produces no millet. The verse presents a double assault on the harvest: misgovernance from above and pestilence from below. The state's policies agitate rather than nurture, creating conditions where vermin multiply and the agricultural base collapses. From Deliverance to After Completion, every element is technically in its proper place — water above fire, the meal being cooked — yet the verse shows how a 'completed' system can still produce famine. The gentleman thinks of calamity and prepares against it, but here preparation came too late.
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