姤 → 節
Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet → Hexagram 60: Limitation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 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 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 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
槽空无實，豚彘不食。庶民屈竭，離其居室。
The trough is empty, nothing inside; the pigs and swine do not eat. The common people are drained and exhausted; they leave their homes and chambers.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath heaven blows through empty troughs. The feeding trough holds nothing, and the pigs and hogs will not eat from it. The common people are exhausted and depleted, driven from their homes and dwellings. The verse traces a chain of deprivation from barnyard to household: when the animals cannot be fed, the agricultural economy collapses; when the economy collapses, the people flee. From Coming to Meet to Limitation, water stands above the lake, establishing necessary boundaries — yet here the limitation has become deprivation. The encounter that Gou brings is with scarcity itself: the wind that should carry heaven's proclamations finds only famine, and the limits that should structure life have squeezed it dry.
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