漸 → 坤
Hexagram 53: Development → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
Line 3
九三 鴻漸于陸。夫征不復。婦孕不育。凶。利禦寇。
Nine in the third place means: The wild goose gradually draws near the plateau. The man goes forth and does not return. The woman carries a child but does not bring it forth. Misfortune. It furthers one to fight off robbers.
Line 5
九五 鴻漸于陵。婦三歲不孕。終莫之勝。吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: The wild goose gradually draws near the summit. For three years the woman has no child. In the end nothing can hinder her. Good fortune.
Line 6
上九 鴻漸于陸。其羽可用為儀。吉。
Nine at the top means: The wild goose gradually draws near the clouds heights. Its feathers can be used for the sacred dance. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
杜飛門啟，憂患大解。不為身禍。
The shackles suddenly break, the ropes loosen on their own. The sick body newly recovered, walking into the east wind. Pushing open the door to gaze — heaven and earth are vast. A hundred birds sing together, ushering in spring's work.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over mountain shifts to doubled earth: gradual growth yields to vast receptive openness. The original verse reads: 'The bolted door opens; worry and misfortune dissolve; no bodily harm comes.' Shackles snap, ropes loosen of themselves, and a convalescent steps out into the spring wind. The imagery of sudden liberation after long constraint mirrors the transformation from Development to the Receptive perfectly. Where the mountain once held the tree in patient growth, now the earth spreads in every direction, boundless and welcoming. Illness lifts, doors swing wide, and the landscape opens without limit. The Receptive's yielding spaciousness is not passive but redemptive: what was slowly built now finds room to breathe.
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