艮 → 節
Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 60: Limitation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 3
九三 艮其限。列其夤。厲熏心。
Nine in the third place means: Keeping his hips still. Making his sacrum stiff. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.
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
安床厚褥，不得久宿。棄我嘉宴，困於南國。投杼之憂，不成禍災。
A peaceful bed with thick quilts, yet one cannot linger long. Abandoning the fine banquet, stranded in the southern land. The worry of the thrown shuttle does not become true disaster.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Twin mountains stand still upon a well-made bed with thick cushions, yet one cannot stay long. The fine banquet is abandoned; one is trapped in the southern land. Then the worry of 'the shuttle thrown down' — but it does not become real disaster. The 'thrown shuttle' (投杼) alludes to the story of Zeng's mother: told three times her son had killed someone, she finally threw down her shuttle and fled. Here the panic is triggered but the feared outcome never materializes. From Keeping Still to Limitation, mountain yields to water above the lake — measured restraint. The verse enacts Limitation's lesson: anxiety exaggerates danger, but proper boundaries contain it. The comfortable bed was always safe; it was the rumor that drove one away.
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