需 → 益
Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 42: Increase
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
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 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
商紂牧野，顛敗所在。賦斂重數，黎元愁苦。
Shang Zhou at the Battle of Muye; overthrown and defeated there. Levies and taxes heaped without measure; the common people grieve and suffer.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds above heaven shift to wind and thunder in mutual Increase — yet the verse speaks of ruin, not growth. King Zhou of Shang at Muye: this is where his dynasty collapsed. Heavy levies and repeated taxation leave the common people wretched and suffering. The Battle of Muye in 1046 BC ended the Shang when King Zhou's own forces turned against him. His downfall was rooted in extravagance funded by crushing exactions from the people. From Waiting to Increase, the transformation is cautionary: Increase promises that seeing good one should pursue it, and having faults one should correct them. King Zhou did neither. The potential for increase existed, but tyrannical extraction turned increase into its opposite — what should have built the state instead destroyed it.
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