旅 → 未濟
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
請冀左耳，嗇不我驅，與我父母。
I beg you, spare this left ear; do not be harsh, do not drive me away. Let me remain with my father and mother.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and the wanderer makes a humble plea — requesting only a left ear of millet from Ji, asking only that the stingy master not drive him away but let him remain with his parents. The verse distills the wanderer's condition to its most basic negotiation: not glory or wealth but mere tolerance, not a feast but a handful of grain, not a homecoming but permission to stay near one's family. From The Wanderer to Before Completion, fire hovers above water without resolution. The final hexagram of the I-Ching leaves all things unfinished, and this verse matches that incompleteness. The wanderer's plea remains suspended — we do not know if it is granted. The journey, like the cycle, does not truly end.
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