革 → 剝
Hexagram 49: Revolution → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6).
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 4
九四 悔亡有孚。改命吉。
Nine in the fourth place means: Remorse disappears. Men believe him. Changing the form of government brings good fortune.
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
野麋畏人，俱入山谷。命短不長，為虎所得，死於牙腹。
The wild deer fears men and together they plunge into the mountain valley. Its life cut short; seized by the tiger, it dies between fang and belly.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire within the lake yields to a mountain resting upon the earth — Splitting Apart, where structure erodes from below. Wild deer fear humans and flee together into the mountain valleys. But their fate is short: the tiger catches them, and they die in its jaws. Revolution drives the vulnerable into flight, but the mountain that should shelter them harbors the predator. The deer's flight into the valley mirrors a common pattern after upheaval: refugees seeking safety in precisely the place where danger waits. From Revolution to Splitting Apart, the transformation shows how the collapsing order strips away all refuge, leaving the weak exposed to those who thrive in chaos.
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