旅 → 師
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 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 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
衛侯東遊，惑於少姬。忘我考妣，久迷不來。
The Marquis of Wei journeyed east, beguiled by the young Lady Ji. Forgetting his father and mother, long lost, he did not return.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and a duke wanders east, bewitched by a young consort. The verse names the Marquis of Wei who traveled eastward and fell under the spell of Lady Shao, forgetting his own parents and ancestors. He lingered in pleasure, lost in infatuation, never returning home. The wanderer here is not the dispossessed exile but the willing absentee — a ruler who abandons his responsibilities for sensual indulgence. From The Wanderer to The Army, the transformation is deeply ironic: while the duke dallies, the state he neglects requires disciplined governance. Water hidden within the earth, The Army's image, demands a leader who channels collective strength. A ruler wandering in another's bedchamber leaves his army without direction and his people without a shepherd.
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