兌 → 蠱
Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 和兌吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Contented joyousness. Good fortune.
Line 3
六三 來兌凶。
Six in the third place means: Coming joyousness. Misfortune.
Line 4
九四 商兌未寧。介疾有喜。
Nine in the fourth place means: Joyousness that is weighed is not at peace. After ridding himself of mistakes a man has joy.
Line 5
九五 孚于剝。有厲。
Nine in the fifth place means: Sincerity toward disintegrating influences is dangerous.
Line 6
上六 引兌。
Six at the top means: Seductive joyousness.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
瘡痍多病，宋公危殆。吳子巢門，无命失所。
Covered in sores and plagued by illness, the Duke of Song stands in mortal peril. Wu Zixu at the Chao Gate; without fate, losing his place.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Paired lakes meet wind beneath the mountain — decay within a structure that appears intact. Wounds and illness multiply; Duke Xiang of Song is in mortal danger. At the Battle of Hong in 638 BC, Duke Xiang insisted on chivalric warfare against Chu, refusing to attack before the enemy crossed the river. He was wounded in the thigh and died two years later. Meanwhile, 'Wu Zi at the nest gate, losing his position without a mandate' may allude to the fall of a Wu commander at the Chao gate. From The Joyous to Work on the Decayed, the verse diagnoses a state rotting from misplaced principles — nobility weaponized into self-destruction.
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