姤 → 解
Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
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 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
前頓卻躓，左跌右逆。登高安梯，復反來歸。
Stumbling forward, tripping backward; falling left, blocked on the right. Climbing high, steadying the ladder; returning again to come home.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath heaven buffets a traveler from every direction. Stumbling forward and tripping back, falling left and lurching right — every step meets an obstacle. Yet the verse resolves: one climbs high by securing a ladder, and in the end returns safely home. The imagery is purely physical — a body battered by misfortune from all angles, yet finding the tool (the ladder) to surmount the final barrier. From Coming to Meet to Deliverance, thunder and rain arrive together in cathartic release. Gou's encounter throws one into violent turbulence, but Deliverance provides the exit: once the storm breaks, the way home clears, and the stumbler becomes the climber.
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