夬 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5, 6).
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 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.
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
長城驪山，生我大殘。涉叔發難，唐叔為患。
The Great Wall and Mount Li, they brought us great ruin. She raised revolt with difficulty; Uncle of Tang became the scourge.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake risen above heaven strikes as lightning and thunder bite through. The Great Wall and Mount Li — those colossal labors that crushed the people under Qin Shi Huang's tyranny. The verse then pivots: 'She Shu raises revolt; Tang Shu becomes a scourge.' The commentarial tradition is uncertain, but the names likely evoke local chieftains or rebel figures whose uprisings compounded the destruction begun by imperial excess. From Breakthrough to Biting Through, decisive power becomes punitive force. Fire and thunder combine to enforce law through penalty — but the verse warns that punishment directed at the wrong target generates only more violence. The wall built to protect becomes the monument of oppression that provokes its own overthrow.
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