革 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 49: Revolution → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
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.
Line 6
上六 君子豹變。小人革面。征凶。居貞吉。
Six at the top means: The superior man changes like a panther. The inferior man molts in the face. Starting brings misfortune. To remain persevering brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
倒基敗宮，重舌作凶。被髮長夜，迷亂相誤，深亡吉居。
Foundations overturned, the palace ruined; a double tongue works its evil. Hair unbound through the long night; lost in confusion and mutual error, the auspicious dwelling sinks into oblivion.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire within the lake gives way to thunder and lightning — Biting Through, the hexagram of criminal justice. Foundations topple and palaces collapse. A double tongue works mischief. Hair loose and unbound through the long night, confusion and error compound one another until the auspicious dwelling is deeply lost. Revolution devolves into judicial chaos: slander ('double tongue') accelerates the destruction, and social norms unravel (unbound hair signals the abandonment of ritual propriety). From Revolution to Biting Through, the transformation warns that when revolution exposes wrongdoing, the rush to punish can itself become anarchic — the court of justice turns into a ruin.
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