Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 53: Development

The Gentle Wind
Wind / Wind
Development
Wind / Mountain
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).

Line 2

九二 巽在牀下。用史巫。紛若。吉。无咎。

xùnencroach(ment)
zàioccur
chuángthe bed
xiàunder
yòngemploy
shǐscribes
and diviners
fēnan assortment
ruòof such
promising
no
jiùblame(worthy)

Nine in the second place means: Penetration under the bed. Priests and magicians are used in great number. Good fortune. No blame.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramWind Wind
Lower TrigramWind MountainThe Gentle → Keeping Still

Yilin Verse

戴盆望天,不見星辰。顧小失大,福逃墻外。

Digging the ground seeking pearls — the pearls hang in the tree. Felling timber seeking fish — the fish are in the deep. Busy all day, hands empty — the lucky star passes overhead, never noticed.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Wind upon wind transforms into wind over mountain: the Gentle becomes Development. The original verse reads: 'Wearing a basin on one's head to gaze at the sky, one cannot see the stars. Attending to the small, one loses the great — fortune escapes beyond the wall.' The idiom 'wearing a basin to look at heaven' is a classical metaphor for self-imposed blindness: the very effort to hold onto something blocks the view of something larger. From The Gentle to Development, trees grow gradually upon the mountain — the gentleman dwells in virtue and improves customs by steady degrees. But the person in this verse cannot develop because their gaze is fixed downward. Gradual progress requires seeing the horizon, not staring at the ground beneath the basin's rim.

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