升 → 晉
Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 2
九二 孚乃利用禴。无咎。
Nine in the second place means: If one is sincere, It furthers one to bring even a small offering. No blame.
Line 3
九三 升虛邑。
Nine in the third place means: One pushes upward into an empty city.
Line 4
六四 王用亨于岐山。吉。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: The king offers him Mount Ch'i. Good fortune. No blame.
Line 6
上六 冥升。利于不息之貞。
Six at the top means: Pushing upward in darkness. It furthers one To be unremittingly persevering.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
三犬俱走，鬭於谷口。白鷰不勝，死於坂下。
Three dogs run together, fighting at the gorge mouth. The white falcon cannot prevail; it dies at the foot of the slope.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wood grows within the earth, but three dogs race together and clash savagely at the mouth of a valley. The white swallow cannot prevail against their ferocity and dies at the foot of the slope. The imagery is of brutal competition in a confined space: three rivals converging on a narrow pass where only the strongest survives and the gentle are crushed. The white swallow — swift, delicate, and fragile — is outmatched by the dogs' raw violence. Fire over earth, the image of Progress, shows brightness emerging from the ground into open view. From Pushing Upward to Progress, the ascent should bring advancement into light. Yet here the light exposes a killing ground: not all who push upward arrive at the top.
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