旅 → 夬
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5, 6).
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 5
六五 射雉。一矢亡。終以譽命。
Six in the fifth place means: He shoots a pheasant. It drops with the first arrow. In the end this brings both praise and office.
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
十雉百雛，常與母俱。抱雞搏虎，誰肯為侶？
Ten pheasants, a hundred chicks, always with the mother. Clutching a rooster to fight a tiger — who would be his companion?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and a mother pheasant leads ten young and a hundred chicks, all clustered close. Then the verse pivots sharply: 'Clutching a chicken to fight a tiger — who would be your companion in that?' The contrast is devastating. The nurturing hen with her brood represents natural order and protective instinct; the madman clutching a chicken against a tiger represents suicidal folly that no one will join. From The Wanderer to Breakthrough, the lake surges above heaven, a torrent of decisive yang energy. But Breakthrough demands the right weapon and the right allies. The traveler who faces overwhelming force with ludicrously inadequate means finds himself abandoned — no one follows a fool into certain death.
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