旅 → 晉
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
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
鷦鷯竊脂，巢於小枝。搖動不安，為風所吹，心寒飄搖，常憂危殆。
The wren steals fat and nests upon a slender twig. Shaken and uneasy, blown by the wind; the heart chills, tossed about, ever fearing peril.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and a tiny wren perches on the thinnest branch, swaying in the wind. The wren (鷦鷯) steals grease for its nest, building upon a twig too slender to bear even its slight weight. Wind buffets it ceaselessly; cold pierces its heart, and it lives in constant fear of falling. The image captures the wanderer in the most precarious possible position — a creature that has built its entire existence on something fundamentally insufficient. From The Wanderer to Progress, fire rises above the earth, illuminating upward. Yet the wren cannot advance; it clings to a trembling perch. Progress demands a solid foundation from which brightness can emerge. Those who build on twigs may see the dawn but cannot greet it standing.
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