歸妹 → 夬
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
孟夏己丑，哀呼尼父。明德訖終，亂虐滋起。
Early summer, the day Yi Chou; they cry out in grief for Master Ni. Bright virtue reaches its end; disorder and cruelty arise.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake surges into lake over heaven: the maiden's uneasy position confronts Breakthrough's decisive rupture. On a jiuchou day in early summer, cries of mourning rise for Father Ni. Confucius died in the fourth month of 479 BC, and the verse laments his passing: with the sage's bright virtue extinguished, disorder and cruelty flourish unchecked. 'Father Ni' is Jiao Yanshou's habitual name for Confucius in the Yilin. From the Marrying Maiden to Breakthrough, the lake rises above heaven and must burst forth. Breakthrough demands that truth be proclaimed in the king's court. The verse frames Confucius's death as the moment when moral authority was breached: without the sage's restraining presence, the dam that held back chaos gives way.
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