Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward

The Wanderer
Mountain / Fire
Pushing Upward
Earth / Wind
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).

Line 1

初六 旅瑣瑣。斯其所取災。

the wanderer
suǒis mean
suǒand frivolous
as such
this
suǒplace
draws
zāiadversity

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。

the wanderer
comes to
an en)camp(ment)
huáicherish
these
resources
and gain
tónga young
servant
zhēnpersistence

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 6

上九 鳥焚其巢。旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易。凶。

niǎolike a
fénthat
its own
cháonest
this wandering
rénone
xiānbegins
xiàoto laugh(ter
hòufollowed by
háowailing
táoand weeping
sàngforfeiting
niúcattle
in
the exchange
xiōnginauspicious

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

Upper TrigramMountain EarthKeeping Still → The Receptive
Lower TrigramFire WindThe Clinging → The Gentle

Yilin Verse

異國殊俗,情不相得。金木為仇,百戰檀穀。

Foreign lands, alien customs; feelings that find no accord. Metal and wood as mortal enemies; a hundred battles in the sandalwood valley.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Fire on the mountain, and the traveler enters a land of alien customs where feelings cannot connect. Metal and wood are natural enemies — they war endlessly at a place called Tangu. The verse describes the fundamental incompatibility between foreign peoples and foreign ways: no common ground, no shared sentiment, only perpetual friction. 'A hundred battles at Tangu' suggests an exhausting, inconclusive frontier conflict. From The Wanderer to Pushing Upward, wood rises through the earth in quiet, steady growth. Yet the verse denies this progress: when the elements themselves are at war, no upward movement is possible. The wanderer in hostile territory cannot take root because the very soil resists his nature.

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