艮 → 夬
Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6).
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 2
六二 艮其腓。不拯其隨。其心不快。
Six in the second place means: Keeping his calves still. He cannot rescue him whom he follows. His heart is not glad.
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.
Line 6
上九 敦艮吉。
Nine at the top means: Noblehearted keeping still. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
虐除善猛，難為攻醫。驥窮鹽車，困於衘箠。
Cruelty removes goodness, ferocity; hard to attack or cure. A thoroughbred exhausted on the salt cart, trapped by bit and whip.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Twin mountains stand still as cruelty expels the good and fierce remedies are hard to administer. A thoroughbred horse, exhausted from hauling a salt cart, suffers under bit and whip. The 'thoroughbred yoked to a salt cart' (驥窮鹽車) is a famous allusion: the great horse Bole would have recognized is instead ground down in menial labor, its extraordinary nature wasted. The story appears in the Zhanguo Ce and Han Feizi. From Keeping Still to Breakthrough, mountain should yield to lake surging above heaven — decisive action that sweeps away corruption. Yet the verse shows Breakthrough frustrated: the talented are abused, the virtuous expelled, and the instrument of change is itself shackled. Liberation cannot come while the liberator is in chains.
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