姤 → 復
Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet → Hexagram 24: Return
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 6 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 繫于金柅。貞吉。有攸往。見凶。羸豕孚蹢躅。
Six at the beginning means: It must be checked with a brake of bronze. Perseverance brings good fortune. If one lets it take its course, one experiences misfortune. Even a lean pig has it in him to rage around.
Line 2
九二 包有魚。无咎。不利賓。
Nine in the second place means: There is a fish in the tank. No blame. Does not further guests.
Line 3
九三 臀无膚。其行次且。厲。无大咎。
Nine in the third place means: There is no skin on his thighs, And walking comes hard. If one is mindful of the danger, No great mistake is made.
Line 4
九四 包无魚。起凶。
Nine in the fourth place means: No fish in the tank. This leads to misfortune.
Line 5
九五 以杞包瓜。含章。有隕自天。
Nine in the fifth place means: A melon covered with willow leaves. Hidden lines. Then it drops down to one from heave.
Line 6
上九 姤其角。吝。无咎。
Nine at the top means: He comes to meet with his horns. Humiliation. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
合匏同牢，姬姜並居。
Sharing the joined gourd, eating from the same dish; Ji and Jiang dwell together.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath heaven arranges a wedding feast. 'Sharing the gourd and the same feast' refers to the ancient marriage ritual where bride and groom drink from halved gourds and eat from the same sacrificial animal, sealing their union. Ji and Jiang — the two greatest aristocratic surnames of Zhou — dwell together in harmony. The verse condenses the entire marital rite into eight characters of exquisite economy. From Coming to Meet to Return, thunder stirs within the earth as the solstice turns: the encounter of male and female in Gou becomes the cosmic return of yang, the primal seed buried in earth's darkness that will grow into a new cycle of life.
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