夬 → 兌
Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
以緡易絲,抱布自媒。棄禮急情,卒罹悔憂。
Trading cord for silk, carrying cloth to propose in person. Casting aside propriety in haste of passion; in the end one suffers regret and sorrow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake risen above heaven doubles into the joyous exchange of lake upon lake. Trading silk thread for woven cord, carrying cloth to arrange one's own marriage — this is the man from the Shijing's Mang ode who 'carried cloth to trade for silk,' using commerce as a pretext for courtship. But the verse condemns the outcome: propriety is abandoned in the rush of desire, and regret and sorrow follow. The Mang ode is a classic warning against unions that bypass ritual form. From Breakthrough to the Joyous, the decisive act meets the pleasure of mutual exchange. But joy without restraint inverts itself: the 'friends discussing and practicing together' that the Joyous should foster becomes a transaction that collapses when its informal foundations give way.
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