Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 2: The Receptive

The Wanderer
Mountain / Fire
The Receptive
Earth / Earth
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 6).

Line 1

初六 旅瑣瑣。斯其所取災。

the wanderer
suǒis mean
suǒand frivolous
as such
this
suǒplace
draws
zāiadversity

Six at the beginning means: If the wanderer busies himself with trivial things, He draws down misfortune upon himself.

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 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 EarthKeeping Still → The Receptive
Lower TrigramFire EarthThe Clinging → The Receptive

Yilin Verse

人无定法,綬降牛出,虵雄走趨。陽不制陰,宜其家國。

Men lack fixed principles; the seal descends, the ox escapes, the male serpent runs forth. When yang cannot restrain yin, such becomes the state of home and country.

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

Commentary

Fire on the mountain sweeps across rootless terrain, and all governance dissolves into chaos. When people abandon proper standards, seals of office drop from their cords and oxen wander free; serpents usurp the dominant position. The verse invokes the ancient warning against yin overwhelming yang — the 'hen crowing at dawn' from the Book of Documents, signaling a household where authority has been inverted. Yet the final line reads with bitter irony: 'fitting indeed for such a house and state.' From The Wanderer to Receptive, the traveler who abandons structure encounters pure earth without heaven's ordering principle. The Receptive thrives through devoted following, but when yang fails to lead, receptivity becomes mere vacancy, and the state collapses into formlessness.

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