夬 → 否
Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 12: Standstill
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 6).
Line 1
初九 壯于前趾。往不勝為咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Mighty in the forward-striding toes. When one goes and is not equal to the task, One makes a mistake.
Line 2
九二 惕號。莫夜有戎。勿恤。
Nine in the second place means: A cry of alarm. Arms at evening and at night. Fear nothing.
Line 3
九三 壯于頄。有凶。君子夬夬。獨行遇雨。若濡有慍。无咎。
Nine in the third place means: To be powerful in the cheekbones Brings misfortune. The superior man is firmly resolved. He walks alone and is caught in the rain. He is bespattered, And people murmur against him. No blame.
Line 6
上六 无號。終有凶。
Six at the top means: No cry. In the end misfortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
班馬旋師，以息勞疲。役夫嘉喜，入戶見妻。
The piebald horses wheel the army home, to rest from toil and weariness. The conscript laborer rejoices greatly; entering the door, he sees his wife.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake risen above heaven stiffens into the standstill of heaven above earth. The army wheels its horses and turns homeward to rest its weary troops. The conscript laborers rejoice — they enter their gates and see their wives again. 'Wheeling horses to withdraw the army' evokes the classical military order to stand down, the campaign concluded. From Breakthrough to Standstill, the decisive stroke has been delivered, and now heaven and earth no longer communicate. But the verse reads this withdrawal positively: the soldiers' joy at returning home reframes Standstill not as stagnation but as earned rest. Sometimes the most decisive act is knowing when to stop, pull back, and let exhausted forces recover behind closed doors.
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