萃 → 頤
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 27: Nourishment
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 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 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
陽伏在下，陰制祐福。生不逢時，潛龍隱處。
Yang lies hidden below; yin controls its blessing. Born out of season, the hidden dragon conceals itself.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake upon earth gives way to mountain above thunder, the stillness of Nourishment. Yang lies hidden below; yin controls above, bestowing protective blessing. Born at the wrong time, the hidden dragon stays concealed. The verse directly invokes the Qian hexagram's first line, 'the hidden dragon does not act,' transposing it into a context of suppression: yang energy exists but is kept beneath yin dominance. This is not destruction but enforced patience, a nourishing containment. From Gathering to Nourishment, the transformation reframes assembly as sustenance through restraint. The mountain's still jaw above and the thunder's dormant energy below form the image of careful feeding: the dragon does not emerge because the season has not yet arrived, and premature action would waste what has been gathered.
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