豐 → 乾
Hexagram 55: Abundance → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 豐其蔀。日中見斗。往得疑疾。有孚發若。吉。
Six in the second place means: The curtain is of such fullness That the polestars can be seen at noon. Through going one meets with mistrust and hate. If one rouses him through truth, Good fortune comes.
Line 5
六五 來章。有慶譽吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Lines are coming, Blessing and fame draw near. Good fortune.
Line 6
上六 豐其屋。蔀其家。闚其戶。闃其无人。三歲不覿。凶。
Six at the top means: His house is in a state of abundance. He screens off his family. He peers through the gate And no longer perceives anyone. For three years he sees nothing. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鼎足承德，嘉謀生福。為王開庭，得心所欲。
A phoenix calls from Mount Qi — the whole world takes notice. The worthy minister holds his tablet, standing at the vermillion steps. One strategy settles the realm, the four seas are calm — nine tripods inscribe the merit, a stele for ten thousand ages.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder and fire blaze together in Abundance, and here the original verse unveils a scene of high statecraft. A tripod's legs bear virtue steadily; wise counsel breeds fortune. The minister opens court for the king and obtains his heart's desire. The tripod (鼎) evokes the bronze vessels of Zhou investiture, and 'bearing virtue on tripod legs' suggests the three great ministers — often read as the Duke of Zhou, Taigong, and the Duke of Shao — who stabilized the young dynasty. Good counsel generates lasting blessing, and the ruler's court opens to receive it. From Abundance to the Creative, the transformation channels thunder-fire's dazzling fullness into heaven's self-generating power: governance at its peak crystallizes into pure initiative, where the sovereign acts from inexhaustible inner strength.
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