歸妹 → 乾
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
Line 3
六三 歸妹以須。反歸以娣。
Six in the third place means: The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine.
Line 5
六五 帝乙歸妹。其君之袂。不如其娣之袂良。月幾望吉。
Six in the fifth place means: The sovereign I gave his daughter in marriage. The embroidered garments of the princess Were not as gorgeous As those of the serving maid. The moon that is nearly full Brings good fortune.
Line 6
上六 女承筐无實。士刲羊无血。无攸利。
Six at the top means: The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it. The man stabs the sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing that acts to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
荊木冬生，司寇緩刑。威權在下，國亂且傾。
The thorn-tree sprouts in winter; the minister of justice suspends his punishments. Authority rests with those below; the state falls into disorder and ruin.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake, the Marrying Maiden, warns that endings must be understood from the start. Thorny jingmu trees sprout in winter, defying the season; the Minister of Justice suspends punishments. When authority drifts downward into the wrong hands, the state tilts toward collapse. Unseasonable growth signals that natural order has inverted: clemency exercised at the wrong time emboldens lawlessness rather than fostering virtue. From the Marrying Maiden to the Creative, the transformation is paradoxical: the Creative's self-generating initiative demands that power emanate from a single sovereign center, yet here it has leaked to subordinates. The verse warns that even heaven's inexhaustible strength cannot sustain a realm where command has been surrendered.
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