萃 → 泰
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 11: Peace
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
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 4
九四 大吉无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Great good fortune. No blame.
Line 5
九五 萃有位。无咎匪孚。元永貞。悔亡。
Nine in the fifth place means: If in gathering together one has position, This brings no blame. If there are some who are not yet sincerely in the work, Sublime and enduring perseverance is needed. Then remorse disappears.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
獮猴兔走，腥臊少肉。漏卮承酒，利无所得。
Monkeys hunt, hares flee; rank and foul, with little meat. A leaking cup receives wine; profit is nowhere to be found.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake upon earth gives way to earth above heaven, the grand interchange of Peace. Yet this verse inverts the auspice entirely. The autumn hunt yields only monkeys and hares, foul-smelling and lean on meat. A leaking goblet receives wine but cannot hold it. Profit vanishes, nothing is gained. The imagery is of diminished returns: the hunt captures only the least desirable prey, and the vessel that should preserve abundance is broken. From Gathering to Peace, the irony cuts deep. Peace depends on heaven and earth exchanging freely, yet here every exchange leaks away. What is gathered dissipates through defective containers, and what is caught barely nourishes. Abundance in name conceals poverty in fact.
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