革 → 豫
Hexagram 49: Revolution → Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5).
Line 1
初九 鞏用黃牛之革。
Nine at the beginning means: Wrapped in the hide of a yellow cow.
Line 3
九三 征凶貞厲。革言三就。有孚。
Nine in the third place means: Starting brings misfortune. Perseverance brings danger. When talk of revolution has gone the rounds three times, One may commit himself, And men will believe him.
Line 5
九五 大人虎變。未占有孚。
Nine in the fifth place means: The great man changes like a tiger. Even before he questions the oracle He is believed.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
迷行晨夜，道多湛露。瀸我袴襦，重不可涉。
Wandering lost through dawn and night, the road heavy with deep dew. It soaks my trousers and tunic; the weight too great to ford onward.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire within the lake transforms into thunder above the earth — Enthusiasm, the surge of joyful energy. Yet the verse tells a different story. Lost in travel through dawn and dusk, the road is thick with dew. Garments are soaked through — trousers, jacket — too heavy to continue fording. Revolution clears the way, but Enthusiasm's thunder-burst arrives as a sodden march: the traveler who set out in revolutionary fervor finds the road impassable, dew-soaked and weighted down. From Revolution to Enthusiasm, the ironic resonance is that exuberance without preparation leads to exhaustion. The thunder may stir the earth, but the walker is too waterlogged to dance.
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