革 → 解
Hexagram 49: Revolution → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 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 2
六二 巳日乃革之。征吉无咎。
Six in the second place means: When one's own day comes, one may create revolution. Starting brings good fortune. No blame.
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
馬蹄躓車，婦惡破家。青蠅污白，恭子離居。
The horse stumbles on the cart; the shrewish wife destroys the household. Green flies stain the white; the dutiful son is driven from his home.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire within the lake yields to thunder above water — Deliverance, where the storm breaks and tension is released. A horse stumbles and wrecks the cart; a wicked wife destroys the household. Blue flies stain what is white; the respectful son is driven from his home. The 'blue flies' (青蠅) come from the Shijing ode warning against slander: 'Buzzing blue flies settle on the fence — kind gentlemen, do not believe slanderous words.' Slander stains the innocent, and a virtuous son is exiled by false accusation. From Revolution to Deliverance, the irony is sharp: the storm that should release tension instead releases destructive forces — stumbling horses, scheming wives, and slanderous flies.
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