艮 → 旅
Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 4).
Line 4
六四 艮其身。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: Keeping his trunk still. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鳥舞國城，邑懼卒驚。仁德不脩，為下所傾。
Birds dancing above the city walls; the town trembles with sudden alarm. Benevolent virtue goes uncultivated; overthrown by those below.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Twin mountains stand still as birds dance upon the city walls — an omen that startles the capital. When humane virtue is not cultivated, the ruler is toppled by those below. In Han-dynasty omen lore, birds behaving strangely on city walls presaged political upheaval; the natural order's disruption mirrors the social order's collapse. From Keeping Still to the Wanderer, mountain yields to fire above the mountain. The Wanderer is the traveler who has lost his home — fire atop a mountain is brilliant but rootless, burning through and moving on. The verse's overthrown ruler becomes this wanderer: his mountain seat was not cultivated with virtue, so the fire that should have warmed his halls instead consumed his authority, leaving him homeless.
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