Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 60: Limitation

The Wanderer
Mountain / Fire
Limitation
Water / Lake
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5, 6).

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 3

九三 旅焚其次。喪其童僕。貞厲。

the wanderer
fénburns
this
camp
sàngand lose
this
tóngyoung
servant
zhēnpersistence(ing)
is difficult

Nine in the third place means: The wanderer's inn burns down. He loses the steadfastness of his young servant. Danger.

Line 5

六五 射雉。一矢亡。終以譽命。

shèshooting
zhìthe pheasant [as a gift for the local noble]
one
shǐarrow
wángis lost
zhōngbut in the end
for the sake of
praise
mìngand commission

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。

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 WaterKeeping Still → The Deep
Lower TrigramFire LakeThe Clinging → The Joyous

Yilin Verse

三足无頭,弗知所之。心狂精傷,莫使為明,不見月光。

Three legs, no head; it knows not where to go. The mind is deranged, the spirit wounded; nothing can serve as light. The moon's glow is not seen.

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

Commentary

Fire on the mountain, and a three-legged creature with no head stumbles blindly, not knowing where to go. Mind deranged and spirit broken, nothing serves as illumination — even the moonlight is invisible. The headless three-legged form may invert the auspicious three-legged sun-crow: where the sun-crow carries light across the sky, this creature is its dark parody, groping through a world without guidance. From The Wanderer to Limitation, water above the lake establishes boundaries and measure. Yet the verse depicts a being beyond all limitation — not transcending it but falling below it, too damaged even to perceive the structures that might save it. Limitation here is medicine the patient cannot swallow.

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