旅 → 明夷
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
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
素車木馬，不任負重。王子出征，憂危為咎。
A plain cart, a wooden horse, unfit to bear heavy loads. The prince sets out on campaign; worry and peril bring blame.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and a wooden horse pulls a paper chariot. 'Unplastered cart, wooden horse' — vehicles of ritual burial, meant for the dead, not the living. They cannot bear real weight or endure a real journey. A prince sets out on campaign with such equipment, and the result is predictable: anxiety and danger become his undoing. The verse warns against attempting serious ventures with inadequate resources — funerary props mistaken for functional tools. From The Wanderer to Darkening of the Light, fire sinks into the earth, brilliance deliberately concealed. The prince's expedition fails because it was never equipped for reality; the light that should guide him is buried beneath the pretense of readiness.
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