艮 → 无妄
Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 25: Innocence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5).
Line 1
初六 艮其趾。无咎。利永貞。
Six at the beginning means: Keeping his toes still. No blame. Continued perseverance furthers.
Line 3
九三 艮其限。列其夤。厲熏心。
Nine in the third place means: Keeping his hips still. Making his sacrum stiff. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.
Line 4
六四 艮其身。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: Keeping his trunk still. No blame.
Line 5
六五 艮其輔。言有序。悔亡。
Six in the fifth place means: Keeping his jaws still. The words have order. Remorse disappears.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
欲避凶門，反與禍鄰。顛覆不制，痛薰我心。
Seeking to flee the gate of ill fortune, one instead becomes calamity's neighbor. Overturned, uncontrolled; pain sears my heart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Twin mountains stand still, but the one who tries to flee misfortune runs straight into its arms. Wanting to avoid the gate of calamity, one finds oneself neighbor to disaster instead. Overthrown and out of control, anguish sears the heart. The verse captures the cruelest irony of fate: evasion itself becomes the trap. From Keeping Still to Innocence, mountain should yield to thunder moving beneath heaven — the energy of what comes without contrivance. Innocence means acting without ulterior motive, letting heaven's initiative take its course. The verse's figure fails precisely because he acts from fear rather than trust. Fleeing calamity is already a contrivance; the mountain's lesson was to stand still and let the storm pass, but panic chose otherwise.
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