艮 → 遯
Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 33: Retreat
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 5).
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
堅冰黃鳥，帝哀悲愁。不見白粒，但覩藜蒿。數驚鷙鳥，為我心憂。
Hard ice, a yellow bird; the emperor grieves in sorrow. No white grain to be seen, only goosefoot and wormwood. Raptor birds startle again and again, making my heart ache.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Twin mountains stand still under hard ice as a yellow bird sings — the sovereign grieves in sorrow. No white grain appears, only weeds of goosefoot and mugwort. Raptors startle repeatedly, deepening the heart's worry. The yellow bird may echo the Shijing exile lament of Xiao Ya, where the bird settling in foreign trees represents the displaced stranger. The frozen ground, absent grain, and predatory birds compound into a landscape of deprivation and fear. From Keeping Still to Retreat, mountain yields to heaven above the mountain. Retreat counsels strategic withdrawal from petty forces. The verse enacts this in reverse — one who should retreat has nowhere left to go, and the ice-locked mountain offers no path of dignified withdrawal.
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