艮 → 需
Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 5: Waiting
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 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 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
根刖殘樹，花葉落去。卒逢火焱，隨風僵仆。
A felled, mutilated tree, its flowers and leaves fallen away. Suddenly meeting a blaze of fire, it topples stiff with the wind.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Twin mountains stand still, but the tree is already stripped bare — roots hewn, flowers and leaves fallen. Then fire strikes suddenly, and the trunk topples with the wind. The image is of complete vulnerability: a living thing reduced to dead timber, then consumed. From Keeping Still to Waiting, mountain transforms into water suspended above heaven. Waiting implies that danger hangs overhead, visible but not yet fallen. The tree that has lost its roots cannot wait; it has no reserves left. The verse warns that stillness without nourishment is not patience but exposure. When the fire arrives, there is nothing left to protect, and the wind finishes what neglect began.
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