巽 → 升
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 5, 6).
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
雖窮復通，履危不凶，保其明公。
Though impoverished, one finds passage; treading danger, yet meeting no harm—the bright lord is preserved.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into earth over wind: the Gentle becomes Pushing Upward. Though one is impoverished, the way opens again. Treading danger, no misfortune comes — one protects the enlightened lord. Three compact phrases encode a complete reversal of fortune: from destitution to renewed passage, from peril to safety, from crisis to the preservation of legitimate authority. From The Gentle to Pushing Upward, trees grow slowly within the earth, accumulating height grain by grain. The gentleman builds virtue through small, sequential steps. The verse's protagonist mirrors this dynamic: pushed to the bottom, he rises gradually but surely, navigating hazards with steadiness rather than force. Wind below earth pushes upward invisibly — and what seemed like ruin becomes the foundation for methodical ascent.
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