Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 55: Abundance

Keeping Still Mountain
Mountain / Mountain
Abundance
Thunder / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 6).

Line 1

初六 艮其趾。无咎。利永貞。

gènstillness
in one's own
zhǐtoes
no
jiùblame
worth
yǒnglasting
zhēnpersistence

Six at the beginning means: Keeping his toes still. No blame. Continued perseverance furthers.

Line 4

六四 艮其身。无咎。

gènstillness
in
shēnselfhood
no
jiùblame

Six in the fourth place means: Keeping his trunk still. No blame.

Line 6

上九 敦艮吉。

dūnauthentic
gènstillness
promising

Nine at the top means: Noblehearted keeping still. Good fortune.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramMountain ThunderKeeping Still → The Arousing
Lower TrigramMountain FireKeeping Still → The Clinging

Yilin Verse

稍弊穿空,家莫為宗。奴婢逃走,子西父東,為身作凶。

Gradually worn through, pierced with holes; the household has no head. Servants and slaves flee; the son goes west, the father east — bringing ruin upon themselves.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Twin mountains stand still, but the household is falling apart at the seams. Things fray and develop holes; the family lacks a proper head. Servants flee; sons scatter west while fathers drift east, each bringing ruin upon themselves. The verse is domestic disintegration at its most visceral: the physical structure decays while its inhabitants disperse in every direction. From Keeping Still to Abundance, mountain yields to thunder above fire — the overwhelming fullness of lightning and thunder arriving simultaneously. Abundance should mean plenitude, but the verse presents its dark inversion: when the household has no center, even abundance becomes chaos. Thunder and fire without a structure to contain them are not prosperity but conflagration. The mountain that should have anchored the family has crumbled.

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