旅 → 恆
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 32: Duration
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
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 2
六二 旅即次。懷其資。得童僕貞。
Six in the second place means: The wanderer comes to an inn. He has his property with him. He wins the steadfastness of a young servant.
Line 4
九四 旅于處。得其資斧。我心不快。
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 6
上九 鳥焚其巢。旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易。凶。
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
Yilin Verse
褁糗荷糧，與跖相逢。欲飛不得，為網所獲。
Wrapping rations and shouldering provisions, he meets the bandit Zhi on the road. Wishing to flee but unable; caught in the net.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and a traveler carrying provisions encounters Robber Zhi on the road. Wrapping dried grain and shouldering supplies, he meets the legendary bandit chief, and though he longs to flee like a bird, the net has already closed. The verse captures the wanderer's worst nightmare: prepared for the journey but ambushed by lawlessness. Robber Zhi, the archetypal outlaw of Chinese tradition, represents pure predatory force that no amount of preparation can guard against. From The Wanderer to Duration, thunder and wind reinforce each other in constancy. Yet the traveler finds no constancy — only entrapment. Duration's lesson here is grimly inverted: the net that holds him is the one enduring thing in a world of violent caprice.
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