巽 → 剝
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
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
三虫作蠱，剗迹无與。勝母盜泉，君子弗處。
Three insects breed poison; their traces must be cut away, left alone. The spring of Robber's Mother, the well of Theft—the noble man will not dwell there.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into mountain over earth: the Gentle becomes Splitting Apart. Three venomous insects work their gu-sorcery, obliterating tracks so none may follow. 'Overcoming-Mother' hamlet and 'Robber's Spring' — a gentleman will not dwell there. The verse layers two images of moral contamination. Gu poisoning represents hidden corruption breeding in sealed vessels; the allusion to Shengmu and Daoquan comes from classical ethics: a man of principle avoids places whose very names suggest impropriety. From The Gentle to Splitting Apart, the mountain's foundation crumbles as earth erodes beneath it. Wind that should penetrate and cleanse instead carries poison. When the ground itself is contaminated, the wise response is not to repair but to withdraw entirely.
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