艮 → 晉

Commentary

Twin mountains stand still as yin energy spawns deer and roe in the valleys. Rats dance in the demon gully, and the sacred turtle drags itself onto dry land. The verse conjures a world of natural omens gone wrong: animals in the wrong places, the numinous turtle beached where it cannot divine. In Han-dynasty lore, the turtle's power depends on water; stranded on land, it is impotent. From Keeping Still to Progress, mountain yields to fire blazing above the earth, the sun rising over the horizon. Progress promises advancing brightness, yet the verse's displaced creatures suggest that the advance is disordered. Fire emerging from earth illuminates what it finds — and here it finds an ominous menagerie scrambling in confusion.