萃 → 中孚
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 61: Inner Truth
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 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 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 4
九四 大吉无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Great good fortune. No blame.
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
元龜象齒，大賂為寶。稽疑當否，衰微復起。
The great tortoise, the ivory of elephants; lavish tribute becomes treasure. Consulting doubt, determining right from wrong; the declining and feeble rise once more.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake upon earth gives way to wind above the lake, the transparent sincerity of Inner Truth. Great tortoise shells and elephant tusks serve as precious tribute. Divination determines what is right and wrong, and from decline a revival begins. The yuan gui, the great turtle shell, was the most valued instrument of Shang and Zhou divination, while elephant ivory was among the rarest tributary goods from the southern regions. Together they represent the full apparatus of legitimate authority: divination for moral clarity and tribute for political submission. From Gathering to Inner Truth, the transformation refines assembly into genuine conviction. Wind over the lake stirs the water's surface, revealing what lies beneath. The gathered treasures are not hoarded but deployed to discern truth, and through honest judgment, what had withered is restored.
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