萃 → 咸
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
山水暴怒，壞梁折柱。稽難行旅，留連愁苦。
The embankment collapses, water floods everything; village roads become rivers. Huddled on rooftops for refuge — cries for help go unanswered.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake upon earth gives way to the lake above the mountain, the mutual Influence of Xian. The original verse reads: mountain torrents rage with violence, destroying bridges and snapping pillars. Travelers are stranded and delayed, lingering in sorrow and distress. The gathered waters that once nourished the earth have transformed into destructive floods. Bridges and pillars, the connective structures of civilization, are the first casualties. From Gathering to Influence, the transformation is paradoxical: Influence (Xian) depicts lake resting atop mountain in receptive stillness, yet here the water has become violent. The sensitivity that should enable gentle mutual response has been overwhelmed by raw hydraulic force. When gathering exceeds the landscape's capacity, even the lake-and-mountain pairing becomes catastrophic.
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