歸妹 → 隨
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 17: Following
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 5).
Line 2
九二 眇能視。利幽人之貞。
Nine in the second place means: A one-eyed man who is able to see. The perseverance of a solitary man furthers.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
隄防壞決，河水放逸。傷害稼穡，居孤獨宿，沒溺我邑。
The dike and dam break apart; the river runs wild and free. Crops and harvests ruined; dwelling alone in solitary night, our village drowns beneath the flood.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake becomes lake over thunder: the maiden's hasty commitment meets Following's yielding adaptability, but here what follows is catastrophe. Dikes and levees burst; the river runs wild. Crops are destroyed, and the poet dwells alone, submerged beneath floodwaters that swallow the settlement. The verse is pure disaster: infrastructure fails, agriculture is ruined, and isolation becomes total. From the Marrying Maiden to Following, the transformation should bring willing adaptation, thunder resting beneath the lake in evening repose. But when what one follows is a broken levee, adaptation means being swept away. The verse warns that Following without discernment leads to drowning, not harmony.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store