Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 17: Following

The Wanderer
Mountain / Fire
Following
Lake / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).

Line 3

九三 旅焚其次。喪其童僕。貞厲。

the wanderer
fénburns
this
camp
sàngand lose
this
tóngyoung
servant
zhēnpersistence(ing)
is difficult

Nine in the third place means: The wanderer's inn burns down. He loses the steadfastness of his young servant. Danger.

Line 4

九四 旅于處。得其資斧。我心不快。

the wanderer
is
chùthe shelter
having secured
his
resources
and an ax
but lamenting 'my...
xīnheart
is not
kuàihappy

Nine in the fourth place means: The wanderer rests in a shelter. He obtains his property and an ax. My heart is not glad.

Line 5

六五 射雉。一矢亡。終以譽命。

shèshooting
zhìthe pheasant [as a gift for the local noble]
one
shǐarrow
wángis lost
zhōngbut in the end
for the sake of
praise
mìngand commission

Six in the fifth place means: He shoots a pheasant. It drops with the first arrow. In the end this brings both praise and office.

Line 6

上九 鳥焚其巢。旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易。凶。

niǎolike a
fénthat
its own
cháonest
this wandering
rénone
xiānbegins
xiàoto laugh(ter
hòufollowed by
háowailing
táoand weeping
sàngforfeiting
niúcattle
in
the exchange
xiōnginauspicious

Nine at the top means: The bird's nest burns up. The wanderer laughs at first, Then must needs lament and weep. Through carelessness he loses his cow. Misfortune.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramMountain LakeKeeping Still → The Joyous
Lower TrigramFire ThunderThe Clinging → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

叔盻抱冤,祁子自邑。乘遽解患,羊舌以免。賴其福全。

Shu Xi nursed a grievance; Qi Zi fled to his own city. Riding the courier horse, the crisis was resolved; Yangshe was thereby spared. His good fortune preserved him whole.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Fire on the mountain, and an innocent man bears grievous injustice. According to the Zuo Zhuan, Shu Xiang (also called Shu Pan) of Jin was imprisoned on false charges after the Luan Ying affair. The retired minister Qi Xi, famed for recommending talent without regard to personal enmity or kinship, rode in haste to plead his case. Through Qi Xi's swift intervention, the Yangshe clan — Shu Xiang's family — was spared destruction. From The Wanderer to Following, the lake cradles thunder in its depths: the superior man rests at nightfall, trusting the world's rhythms. The verse enacts Following's principle — when a wronged man does not act rashly but waits for the right advocate, deliverance arrives through another's timely movement.

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