漸 → 蒙
Hexagram 53: Development → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5).
Line 2
六二 鴻漸于磐。飲食衎衎。吉。
Six in the second place means: The wild goose gradually draws near the cliff. Eating and drinking in peace and concord. Good fortune.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
眾鳥所翔，中有大怪，九身无頭。魂驚魄去，不可以居。
The ruined temple's crumbling murals still remain — but every deity on the wall has no eyes. At midnight, wind comes and the door opens on its own. The candle goes out, shadows move — no one is seen.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over mountain shifts to mountain over water: gradual clarity descends into youthful bewilderment. The original verse describes a flock of birds in flight, among them a monstrous thing with nine bodies and no heads. Souls scatter in terror; the place is unfit for habitation. The headless creature evokes disorder without rational guidance, a proliferation of forms lacking any directing intelligence. From Development to Youthful Folly, the patient advance of understanding meets the spring beneath the mountain, water emerging from darkness, groping blindly. What was gradually becoming clear has plunged back into confusion. The verse warns that not all growth leads upward: sometimes the path leads into a haunted ruin where even the gods have lost their eyes.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store