旅 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初六 旅瑣瑣。斯其所取災。
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。
Nine in the third place means: The wanderer's inn burns down. He loses the steadfastness of his young servant. Danger.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
教羊逐兔，使魚相捕。任非其人，費日无功。
Teaching sheep to chase rabbits, setting fish to catch one another. Appointing those unfit for the task; wasting days without achievement.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and a traveler assigns impossible tasks. Teaching sheep to chase rabbits, ordering fish to hunt one another — every appointment mismatches nature with function. The person is unsuited to the task, and the result is wasted days with nothing accomplished. The verse's humor barely masks its political edge: this is governance by absurdity, where roles are assigned without regard for aptitude. From The Wanderer to Biting Through, thunder and lightning combine to enforce clarity — the hexagram of legal judgment that cuts through obstruction. Yet the verse warns that no amount of judicial force can remedy fundamental misassignment. Fire and thunder may strike, but if the sheep is still chasing the rabbit, the system itself is the problem.
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