旅 → 歸妹
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 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 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 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
水壞我里，東流為海。鳧龜讙囂，不得安居。
Water destroys my village, flowing east to the sea. Ducks and turtles cry in uproar; there is no place to dwell in peace.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and floodwaters destroy the traveler's neighborhood. The torrent rushes eastward toward the sea; ducks and turtles clamor in the chaos, and no one can find a peaceful dwelling. Water has displaced earth — the familiar ground is gone, replaced by churning currents and displaced creatures. From The Wanderer to Marrying Maiden, thunder surges above the lake in an arrangement that cannot sustain itself long-term. The Marrying Maiden's pattern of improper position — the younger sister placed above her station — mirrors the verse's image of creatures out of place, a community washed from its foundations. Displacement compounds displacement: the wanderer's home is flooded, and what remains is turbulent misalliance.
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