Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 27: Nourishment

The Wanderer
Mountain / Fire
Nourishment
Mountain / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).

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.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramMountain Mountain
Lower TrigramFire ThunderThe Clinging → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

六人俱行,各遺其囊。黃鵠失珠,无以為明。

The merchant caravan crosses the river — goods sink in the current. Baggage slips from the donkey's back, uncollectable. Night falls, the lamp is lit — but it too goes out. Groping forward in darkness, each person worries alone.

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

Commentary

Fire on the mountain, and six travelers lose everything on the road. The original verse — 'Six people journey together, each losing his bag; the yellow swan loses its pearl and has nothing for light' — depicts a collective calamity on the road. Belongings scatter, and the luminous pearl that should guide the way is gone, leaving only darkness. The yellow swan (黃鵠) losing its pearl suggests the loss of the one precious thing that made the journey navigable. From The Wanderer to Nourishment, the mountain rests above thunder, counseling careful speech and measured consumption. The verse warns that travelers who cannot safeguard their provisions arrive at Nourishment's gate with nothing to sustain them — mouths open but no food to enter.

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