需 → 剝
Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5).
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 5
九五 需于酒食。貞吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Waiting at meat and drink. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
孤竹之墟，老婦无夫。傷於蒺藜，不見少妻。東郭堂姜，武氏破亡。
The ruins of Guzhu; an old woman without a husband. Wounded by caltrops; the young wife unseen. Dongguo Tang Jiang; the Wu clan is destroyed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds above heaven crumble into the mountain splitting from the earth. The ruins of Guzhu — homeland of Boyi and Shuqi — become a desolate widow's landscape: an old woman without a husband, wounded by thorns, unable to find a young wife for her household. Then the verse pivots to another tale of desire and destruction: Tangjiang of the Eastern Wall and the downfall of the Wu clan. Tangjiang was the beautiful widow of Lord Tang of Qi, whose remarriage to the powerful minister Cui Zhu led to an affair with Duke Zhuang of Qi, culminating in the duke's assassination and Cui Zhu's own ruin. From Waiting to Splitting Apart, the nourishing order erodes completely: beauty misplaced becomes the agent of collapse.
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