萃 → 乾
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 6).
Line 1
初六 有孚不終。乃亂乃萃。若號一握為笑。勿恤。往无咎。
Six at the beginning means: If you are sincere, but not to the end, There will sometimes be confusion, sometimes gathering together. If you call out, Then after one grasp of the hand you can laugh again. Regret not. Going is without blame.
Line 2
六二 引吉无咎。孚乃利用禴。
Six in the second place means: Letting oneself be drawn Brings good fortune and remains blameless. If one is sincere, It furthers one to bring even a small offering.
Line 3
六三 萃如嗟如。无攸利。往无咎。小吝。
Six in the third place means: Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing that would further. Going is without blame. Slight humiliation.
Line 6
上六 齎咨涕洟。无咎。
Six at the top means: Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
碩鼠四足，飛不上屋。顏氏淵德，未有爵祿。
The large rat has four feet, yet cannot fly up to the roof. Yan Hui possessed profound virtue, yet never received rank or salary.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake gathers upon the earth, yet what assembles here cannot rise. A fat rat scurries on four legs but cannot fly up to the rooftop. The image evokes the Shijing's 'Shuo Shu' ode, where the bloated rat devours the people's grain, an emblem of parasitic consumption without contribution. Then comes Yan Hui, Confucius's most beloved disciple, whose depth of virtue (yuan de) went unmatched yet was never rewarded with rank or salary. He lived in a narrow lane on a single bowl of rice and a ladle of water. From Gathering to the Creative, the transformation exposes a bitter irony: even when all forces converge, pure heaven-born initiative demands more than mere congregation. Talent ungathered by the right patron remains earthbound, however bright its nature.
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