小畜

Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward → Hexagram 9: Small Taming

Pushing Upward
Earth / Wind
小畜
Small Taming
Wind / Heaven
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 5, 6).

Line 1

初六 允升大吉。

yǔnwelcome
shēngadvance
much
promise

Six at the beginning means: Pushing upward that meets with confidence Brings great good fortune.

Line 5

六五 貞吉升階。

zhēnpersistence
promising
shēngthe advance
jiēby in steps

Six in the fifth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. One pushes upward by steps.

Line 6

上六 冥升。利于不息之貞。

míngthe blind
shēngadvance
worthwhile
to
not being
laxity
zhīin
zhēnpersistence

Six at the top means: Pushing upward in darkness. It furthers one To be unremittingly persevering.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramEarth WindThe Receptive → The Gentle
Lower TrigramWind HeavenThe Gentle → The Creative

Yilin Verse

牛驥同槽,郭氏以亡。國破為墟,君奔走逃。

The ox and the thoroughbred share the same trough; by this the house of Guo perishes. The state broken and made a ruin, the lord flees in haste.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Wood grows within the earth, but when thoroughbreds and oxen share the same trough, the house of Guo falls. The state is shattered into ruins, its lord flees in panic. The idiom 'oxen and fine steeds at one manger' comes from Zou Yang's famous prison letter: when talent and mediocrity are treated alike, ruin follows inevitably. The Guo clan's collapse illustrates what happens when no one distinguishes the worthy from the worthless. Wind over heaven, the image of Small Taming, suggests gentle restraint that proves fatally insufficient. From Pushing Upward to Small Taming, rising ambition meets inadequate containment — the wind's gentle force cannot hold back the catastrophe that indiscriminate governance invites.

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