旅 → 萃
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 45: Gathering Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 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 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.
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
六鷁退飛，為衰敗祥。陳師合戰，左股疾傷。遂以薨崩，霸功不成。
Six cormorants fly backward — an omen of decay and defeat. Marshaling troops for battle, the left thigh is wounded. Thereupon he falls and dies; his hegemony is not achieved.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and six fishhawks fly backward — an omen of decline and defeat. According to the Zuo Zhuan, in 644 BC six yi-birds were blown backward over the Song capital, a portent that the interior scribe of Zhou interpreted for Duke Xiang of Song. The verse then describes a campaign: mustering troops and joining battle, the commander suffers a wound to his left thigh and ultimately perishes, his hegemonic ambitions unfulfilled. Duke Xiang of Song, who insisted on fighting honorably against Chu at the Battle of Hong River (638 BC), was wounded in that very leg and died shortly after. From The Wanderer to Gathering, the lake collects upon the earth. Yet what gathers here is not strength but misfortune — omens accumulate until they overwhelm.
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