夬 → 謙
Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 15: Modesty
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
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 4
九四 臀无膚。其行次且。牽羊悔亡。聞言不信。
Nine in the fourth place means: There is no skin on his thighs, And walking comes hard. If a man were to let himself be led like a sheep, Remorse would disappear. But if these words are heard They will not be believed.
Line 5
九五 莧陸夬夬。中行无咎。
Nine in the fifth place means: In dealing with weeds, Firm resolution is necessary. Walking in the middle Remains free of blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
田鼠野雛，意常欲去。拘制籠檻，不得搖動。
The field mouse and the wild chick, their hearts always yearning to flee. Confined in cage and pen, they cannot stir or move.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake risen above heaven descends into the mountain hidden within earth. A field mouse and a wild chick forever long to escape. Caged and penned, they cannot stir at all. The wild creatures are trapped — their instinct is to flee but the bars hold them fast. From Breakthrough to Modesty, decisive liberation meets the mountain submerged beneath the earth's surface. Modesty's image is a mountain concealed underground — power voluntarily lowered. But the verse shows the coerced version: not willing humility but forced confinement. The creatures' desire to escape is the yang impulse of Breakthrough remembered within a structure that denies it expression. Modesty taken to its extreme becomes a cage, and the wild heart endures its restraint without peace.
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