歸妹 → 巽
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6).
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 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 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
作新初陵，爛陷難登。三駒摧車，斲頓傷頤。
Building a new hillside road; the soft ground collapses, impossible to climb. Three colts wreck the cart; the axle shatters and strikes the jaw.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake subsides into doubled wind: the maiden's jolting energy dissolves into the Gentle's penetrating subtlety. A freshly built tomb on a new hill collapses into the mud, impossible to climb. Three young colts overturn the carriage, shattering it and injuring the jaw. The verse pairs two failures of new construction: the tomb that cannot hold its ground and the vehicle that self-destructs. From the Marrying Maiden to the Gentle, wind follows wind in repeated, subtle penetration. The Gentle's counsel is to issue commands methodically and follow through. Yet the verse shows the opposite: hastily erected structures crumble, and untrained animals destroy what they were meant to carry. The Gentle's penetration works only with patient, repeated effort, not with the raw force that breaks everything it touches.
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