Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind

Waiting
Water / Heaven
The Gentle Wind
Wind / Wind
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 6).

Line 1

初九 需于郊。利用恆。无咎。

waiting
on
jiāothe outskirts
worthwhile
yònguseful
héngwhat endures
no
jiùblame

Nine at the beginning means: Waiting in the meadow. It furthers one to abide in what endures. No blame.

Line 6

上六 入于穴。有不速之客三人來。敬之終吉。

entering
into
xuéa pit
yǒuwith
no
invitation
zhīextended to
visitors
sānthree
rénpeople
láiarrive
jìngto respect
zhīto them
zhōngwill end in
good fortune

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

Upper TrigramWater WindThe Deep → The Gentle
Lower TrigramHeaven WindThe Creative → The Gentle

Yilin Verse

晉平有疾,迎醫秦國。病乃大患,分為兩豎。逃匿膏盲,和不能愈。

Duke Ping of Jin fell ill; he summoned a physician from Qin. The illness proved a great affliction, splitting into two demon-children. They hid below the heart and above the diaphragm; the healer could not cure it.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Clouds above heaven dissolve into doubled wind — the Gentle's penetrating influence. Duke Ping of Jin falls ill and sends for a physician from Qin. The sickness proves dire: it splits into two little demons who flee to hide between the vital membranes (膏肓), where no needle can reach and no medicine can penetrate. Even the physician He cannot cure it. The verse conflates two famous Jin medical episodes: the physician Yi He who diagnosed Duke Ping's illness as incurable excess, and the physician Yi Huan whose patient Duke Jing dreamed of two child-demons hiding in the unreachable space between heart and diaphragm. From Waiting to The Gentle, nourishment should penetrate like wind — yet even the wind's subtlest entry cannot reach where the disease has lodged.

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