需 → 明夷
Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 5).
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
螟䖝為賊，害我五穀。簞食空虛，家無所食。
Crop-eating insects are the bandits; they harm my five grains. The food baskets stand empty; the family has nothing to eat.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds above heaven sink into the earth burying the light. Locusts and caterpillars become the thieves, destroying the five grains. The grain baskets stand empty; the household has nothing to eat. The verse is stark agricultural catastrophe: insect plagues devour the harvest, leaving ritual vessels and family larders alike barren. In classical thought, pestilence was both natural disaster and moral omen — heaven withdrawing its favor manifests as plagues that consume what should nourish. From Waiting to Darkening of the Light, the clouds that promised rain instead produce the conditions for swarming pests. The light that should illuminate is driven underground; what should feed is consumed by what creeps and devours.
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