益 → 既濟
Hexagram 42: Increase → Hexagram 63: After Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
Line 3
六三 益之用凶事。无咎。有孚中行。告公用圭。
Six in the third place means: One is enriched through unfortunate events. No blame, if you are sincere And walk in the middle, And report with a seal to the prince.
Line 6
上九 莫益之。或擊之。立心勿恆。凶。
Nine at the top means: He brings increase to no one. Indeed, someone even strikes him. He does not keep his heart constantly steady. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
操戟刺魚，被髮立憂，虎脫我衣，狼取我袍，亡馬失財。
Wielding a halberd to spear fish, hair unbound, standing in dread. The tiger strips my coat; the wolf takes my cloak — horse lost, wealth gone.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind and thunder bestow increase, but the transformation leads to water above fire — the precarious completion of After Completion, where every element is in place but nothing is secure. Wielding a halberd to spear fish, hair disheveled and standing in distress. A tiger strips away the speaker's garment; a wolf seizes the robe. Horses are lost and wealth vanishes. The images cascade in accelerating disaster: martial effort misdirected at fishing, personal dignity abandoned, clothing torn away by predators, and finally the loss of all material resources. Each line strips another layer of security. From Increase to After Completion, the verse illustrates the hexagram's fundamental warning: when everything appears complete, decline has already begun. Water above fire will eventually extinguish it. The increase that brought the speaker to this moment of apparent fullness now drains away through every breach, until nothing remains.
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