解 → 未濟
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
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
干旄旌旗，執職在郊。雖有寶珠，无路致之。
Banners and flags wave at the frontier; the officers stand at their posts in the field. Though there be precious pearls, there is no road to deliver them.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water reaches toward fire above water — the unfinished crossing of Before Completion. Banners and pennants wave in the field as officials stand at their posts in the borderlands. Though one possesses precious pearls, there is no road to bring them to market. The verse captures the frustration of potential unrealized: the ceremony is in place, the treasure exists, but the connection between the two is severed. From Deliverance to Before Completion, the final transformation of this cycle is the most honest: liberation does not mean arrival. Fire and water have not yet exchanged their proper places; the young fox has not yet crossed the stream. The pearls gleam in the hand, but the road to where they matter has yet to be built.
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