既濟

Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 63: After Completion

Breakthrough
Lake / Heaven
既濟
After Completion
Water / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 4).

Line 2

九二 惕號。莫夜有戎。勿恤。

anxious
hàoand complain
this is not
night
yǒuto have
róngwar
do not
worry

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。

túnrump
without
skin
one's
xíngwalking
is second-rate
qiěfor now
qiānin tow
yángas
huǐregrets
wángwill
wénbut to hear
yánthis
is not
xìnto believe

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

Upper TrigramLake WaterThe Joyous → The Deep
Lower TrigramHeaven FireThe Creative → The Clinging

Yilin Verse

傳言相誤,非奸徑路。鳴鼓逐狼,不知迹處。

Rumors passed along become distorted; not the true and proper path. They beat drums to drive the wolf, but cannot find its tracks.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Lake risen above heaven settles into the water above fire of completion. Rumor compounds rumor, each transmission further from the truth — these are not the paths of cunning but honest errors. Beating drums to drive away the wolf, yet no one knows where its tracks lead. The verse describes a system where communication has degraded: messages garbled in relay, the threat real but its location unknown. The drums are loud but misdirected. From Breakthrough to After Completion, the decisive cut should lead to the perfectly ordered state where water sits above fire in balanced tension. But the verse shows the fragility of that balance: even after completion, misinformation circulates, the wolf remains at large, and the organized response misses its mark. Order achieved is immediately threatened by entropy.

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