夬 → 節
Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 60: Limitation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 4).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
大麓魚池，陸為海涯。君子失行，小人相攜。
The great forest becomes a fish pond; the land becomes the ocean shore. The gentleman loses his way; the petty men lead each other on.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake risen above heaven meets the water held within the lake's measure. Great forests become fish ponds; dry land turns to seashore. The gentleman loses his proper conduct, and petty men lead each other by the hand. The landscape undergoes a catastrophic inversion — forests flood, land becomes ocean — and the social order follows suit: the upright lose their way while the base prosper in collusion. From Breakthrough to Limitation, the decisive overflow should be channeled into measured containment — water above the lake establishing proper boundaries. But the verse shows those boundaries overwhelmed: the landscape itself refuses to stay within its assigned form, and human society mirrors nature's collapse. When limits fail, the distinction between high and low ground dissolves entirely.
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