中孚

Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 61: Inner Truth

Keeping Still Mountain
Mountain / Mountain
中孚
Inner Truth
Wind / Lake
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 5).

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 2

六二 艮其腓。不拯其隨。其心不快。

gènstillness
in one's own
féicalves
this does
zhěnghelping
in
suípursuits
this one's
xīnheart
is not
kuàihappy

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。

gènstill
in
xiànboundaries
lièseparate
up in
yínloins
harshness
xūnchoke
xīnthe heart

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。

gènstillness
in one's own
jawbones
yánspeech
yǒuhas
meaningful order
huǐregrets
wángpass

Six in the fifth place means: Keeping his jaws still. The words have order. Remorse disappears.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramMountain WindKeeping Still → The Gentle
Lower TrigramMountain LakeKeeping Still → The Joyous

Yilin Verse

內崩身傷,中亂无常。雖有美粟,不我食得。

Collapsing within, the body is harmed; disorder in the center, nothing constant. Though there be fine grain, I cannot eat of it.

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

Commentary

Twin mountains stand still, but within, the body collapses and sustains injury. Internal chaos has no constancy; though fine millet is at hand, one cannot eat it. The verse describes a figure whose own constitution has turned against him — not external attack but internal disintegration. Food exists but the body refuses it, as if the organism has lost the ability to receive nourishment. From Keeping Still to Inner Truth, mountain yields to wind above the lake, where sincerity penetrates to the hollow center. Inner Truth requires emptiness at the core to resonate — but here the core is not receptive hollowness but wounded collapse. The mountain's stillness, which should produce centered clarity, instead conceals an interior in ruins.

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