歸妹 → 无妄
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 25: Innocence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 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 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
雞方啄粟，為狐所逐。走不得食，惶懼喘息。
The chicken pecks at grain; the fox gives chase. It flees without eating, panting and gasping in terror.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake shifts to heaven over thunder: the maiden's vulnerable position encounters Innocence's unforgiving impartiality. A chicken pecking at grain is chased off by a fox. It flees without eating, panting in terror. The verse captures the cruelty of innocent vulnerability: the chicken did nothing wrong, yet the predator strikes without cause. From the Marrying Maiden to Innocence, the transformation introduces heaven's thunder rolling across the earth, where all things receive what accords with their nature. Innocence means freedom from false intention, but it also means that disaster can strike the blameless. The chicken's panic embodies Wuwang's paradox: innocence offers no shield against misfortune when the cosmos is not yet aligned in one's favor.
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