漸 → 益
Hexagram 53: Development → Hexagram 42: Increase
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初六 鴻漸于干。小子厲有言。無咎。
Six at the beginning means: The wild goose gradually draws near the shore. The young son is in danger. There is talk. No blame.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
築闕石巔，立基泉源。疾病不安，老孤无鄰。
Building a tower on a stone summit, laying foundations at the spring's source. Illness brings no peace; old and alone, without a neighbor.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over mountain gives way to wind over thunder: gradual development surges into the momentum of Increase. Yet the verse tells a bitter tale. One builds a watchtower on a rocky peak and establishes foundations at the headspring, but illness brings no peace, and the old are left alone without neighbors. The construction is ambitious, the location grand, yet the builder finds himself isolated and sick. From Development to Increase, wind and thunder reinforce each other, the gentleman correcting faults and amplifying virtue. But the verse inverts the promise: increase in structure does not guarantee increase in wellbeing. Building at the summit, far from human community, is an increase that isolates rather than connects. Gradual ambition, misdirected, produces magnificent loneliness.
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