巽 → 咸
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 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 4
六四 悔亡。田獲三品。
Six in the fourth place means: Remorse vanishes. During the hunt Three kinds of game are caught.
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
无足斷跟,居處不安,凶惡為患。
Without feet, severed at the heel; dwelling finds no peace—evil brings calamity.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into lake over mountain: the Gentle becomes Influence. Footless and with heels cut off, dwelling is never safe — calamity and evil bring constant affliction. The verse is starkly physical: mutilation has removed the very means of standing, let alone walking. Without feet and heels, one cannot settle anywhere, perpetually unstable and vulnerable. From The Gentle to Influence, the lake resting upon the mountain should enable the gentleman to receive others with openness. Influence begins at the extremities — the toes, the calves — and rises upward. But here the extremities are destroyed, severing the very channels through which sensation and connection should flow. When the foundation of receptivity is amputated, no influence can take root.
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