萃 → 蠱
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
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.
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
襄王叔帶，鄭人是賴。莊公卿士，皇母憂苦。
King Xiang and Shu Dai; the men of Zheng are the ones relied upon. Duke Zhuang's chief minister; the queen mother grieves in anguish.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake upon earth transforms into mountain above wind, the corruption that festers beneath the surface. King Xiang of Zhou and his brother Prince Dai, who relied on the people of Zheng. Duke Zhuang's chief minister and the queen mother's bitter worry. Prince Dai, favored by Queen Hui, conspired with the Di barbarians to overthrow King Xiang in 636 BC, forcing the king to flee to Zheng. The Zheng state became entangled as both refuge and enabler. From Gathering to Work on the Decayed, the transformation exposes how familial gathering curdles into factional rot. Mountain over wind: decay brews unseen beneath the still surface, as royal siblings, ministers, and foreign powers form toxic alliances that corrode the Zhou house from within.
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