巽 → 謙
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 15: Modesty
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
Line 2
九二 巽在牀下。用史巫。紛若。吉。无咎。
Nine in the second place means: Penetration under the bed. Priests and magicians are used in great number. Good fortune. No blame.
Line 5
九五 貞吉悔亡。无不利。无初有終。先庚三日。後庚三日。吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes. Nothing that does not further. No beginning, but an end. Before the change, three days. After the change, three days. Good fortune.
Line 6
上九 巽在牀下。喪其資斧。貞凶。
Nine at the top means: Penetration under the bed. He loses his property and his ax. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
龜厭江海，陸行不止。自令枯槁，失其都市。憂悔為咎。
The turtle, weary of rivers and seas; travels on land without stopping. It brings itself to ruin; loses its native waters. Regret and remorse become its portion.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into earth over mountain: the Gentle becomes Modesty. A turtle, weary of rivers and seas, takes to walking on land without rest. It dries itself out, loses its city — and regret becomes its ruin. The turtle's natural element is water; abandoning it for dry land is a fatal misreading of one's own nature. The more it walks, the more it desiccates, moving further from what sustains it. From The Gentle to Modesty, the transformation offers a pointed lesson. The mountain hidden within the earth knows its place. The turtle, by contrast, overreaches — leaving its domain out of restless dissatisfaction. True modesty means recognizing where one belongs and staying there, not exhausting oneself in alien territory.
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