歸妹 → 坤
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4).
Line 1
初九 歸妹以娣。跛能履。征吉。
Nine at the beginning means: The marrying maiden as a concubine. A lame man who is able to tread. Undertakings bring good fortune.
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 4
九四 歸妹愆期。遲歸有時。
Nine in the fourth place means: The marrying maiden draws out the allotted time. A late marriage comes in due course.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
喘牛傷暑，弗能成畝。草萊不闢，年歲无有。
The panting ox, stricken by heat, cannot finish the furrow. Weeds and brambles go uncleared; the year yields nothing at all.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake gives way to doubled earth: the maiden's ill-timed union yields to the Receptive's vast barrenness. An ox pants under summer heat, unable to finish plowing even one acre. Weeds and brush go uncleared; the year produces no harvest. The imagery is agricultural exhaustion, the land itself refusing to cooperate when conditions are hostile. From the Marrying Maiden to the Receptive, the transformation moves from a premature commitment into the earth's passive endurance, but here the earth receives nothing because nothing was properly sown. The Receptive thrives on patient cultivation, yet without timely effort, its infinite capacity remains empty. Barren fields mirror a union that yields no fruit.
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