豐 → 離
Hexagram 55: Abundance → Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
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
早霜晚雪，傷害禾麥。損功棄力，飢无可食。
Early frost and late snow, damaging grain and wheat. Effort wasted, labor lost; hungry with nothing to eat.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder and fire illuminate Abundance, yet the verse presents agricultural devastation. Early frost and late snow wound the grain and wheat. All labor and effort are wasted; hunger leaves nothing to eat. The unseasonable cold — frost too early in autumn, snow too late in spring — destroys the harvest at both ends of the growing season. The farmer's toil counts for nothing against heaven's untimely assault. From Abundance to the Clinging, doubled fire: the irony is sharp. Fire should mean warmth and light, but when Abundance's fullness meets fire without moderation, the imagery inverts. The Clinging's light reveals the damage clearly but cannot warm what frost has already killed. Brilliance that arrives after the harvest is ruined illuminates only loss.
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