益 → 渙

Commentary

Wind and thunder bestow increase, but the transformation leads to wind moving above water — the scattering dissolution of Dispersion. Above, no birds fly; below, no beasts run. Disorder has not been quelled, and the people are exhausted by their labors. The complete absence of wildlife signals a landscape stripped bare — an environment so degraded that even animals have fled. The people's exhaustion compounds the desolation: human effort is expended without producing recovery. From Increase to Dispersion, the verse captures the worst outcome of scattering: not liberating release but total dissipation. Wind above water disperses what it touches, and when the increase of energy meets only chaos, it spreads the disorder further rather than gathering it into form. The absence of both birds and beasts marks a world emptied beyond repair.