歸妹 → 賁
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 22: Grace
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).
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 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 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.
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
耕石不生，棄禮无名。縫衣失針，襦袴弗成。
Plowing stone yields no growth; abandoning rites leaves no name. Sewing clothes but losing the needle; jacket and trousers remain unfinished.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake shifts to mountain over fire: the maiden's improper arrangement encounters Grace's demand for proper form. Plowing stone yields no crop; abandoning ritual leaves one nameless. A seamstress loses her needle, and the garment cannot be completed. Every image pairs futile labor with missing essentials: stone cannot nourish seeds, ritual gives meaning to action, and without a needle no cloth takes shape. From the Marrying Maiden to Grace, the transformation places fire beneath the mountain, adorning substance with beauty. But Grace without substance is empty ornament. The verse warns that when the fundamental tool is missing, no amount of effort can produce the desired form. Correct means must precede correct ends.
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