萃 → 旅
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 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 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
三日不飲，遠水无酒。晝夜焦喉，傷鬼為咎。
Three days without drink; water is far, there is no wine. Day and night his throat burns; harmed by ghosts, he bears this affliction.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake upon earth transforms into fire above the mountain, the lonely Wanderer. Three days without a drink; distant water offers no wine. Day and night the throat burns with thirst, and haunting spirits bring misfortune. The verse is pure privation: no liquid of any kind, whether water for survival or wine for solace. The 'wound ghost' (shang gui) suggests illness or malign spiritual influence compounding the physical suffering. From Gathering to the Wanderer, the transformation strips away everything the community once provided. The Wanderer's fire atop the mountain is transient, never staying long enough to build a home. What was gathered in the lake has evaporated entirely, and the traveler's burning throat is the inverse of communal feasting: solitary thirst where shared wine once flowed.
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