需 → 否
Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 12: Standstill
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 需于郊。利用恆。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Waiting in the meadow. It furthers one to abide in what endures. No blame.
Line 2
九二 需于沙。小有言。終吉。
Nine in the second place means: Waiting on the sand. There is some gossip. The end brings good fortune.
Line 3
九三 需于泥。致寇至。
Nine in the third place means: Waiting in the mud Brings about the arrival of the enemy.
Line 4
六四 需于血。出自穴。
Six in the fourth place means: Waiting in blood. Get out of the pit.
Line 6
上六 入于穴。有不速之客三人來。敬之終吉。
Six at the top means: One falls into the pit. Three uninvited guests arrive. Honor them, and in the end there will be good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
雌單獨居，歸其本巢。毛羽憔悴，志如死灰。
The female bird dwells alone, returning to her old nest. Feathers haggard and worn; her spirit is as dead ash.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds above heaven yield to the stagnation of heaven and earth refusing to meet. A lone female bird returns to its nest, feathers bedraggled, spirit like dead ashes — the Zhuangzian image of a mind so defeated it has ceased to respond. Without its mate, the bird has no purpose for its plumage; solitude strips away even the instinct to preen. From Waiting to Standstill, the nourishing promise of clouds gives way to total blockage: heaven ascends, earth descends, and the two never meet. The bird's desolation mirrors the hexagram's cosmic divorce — yin and yang sealed apart, life draining toward inertia.
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