兌 → 益
Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake → Hexagram 42: Increase
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 6).
Line 2
九二 孚兌吉。悔亡。
Nine in the second place means: Sincere joyousness. Good fortune. Remorse disappears.
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 6
上六 引兌。
Six at the top means: Seductive joyousness.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
夏姬附耳，心聽悅喜，利以傳取。
Lady Xia Ji leans close to the ear; the heart listens with joyful attention. Profitable for transmission and acquisition.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Paired lakes meet wind and thunder — Increase, where the upper enriches the lower. Lady Xia leans close, whispering ear to ear, her heart listening with delight, using this intimacy to seize and transmit. Xia Ji was the notorious beauty of the state of Chen whose allure destroyed rulers and ministers alike. The Chu minister Wu Chen abandoned his post to elope with her. From The Joyous to Increase, the verse warns of gain through seduction. Wind and thunder should mean seeing good and following it, but here 'increase' is achieved through the corrupting transmission of desire. What appears as mutual enrichment is actually the mechanism by which kingdoms fall — pleasure weaponized into political destruction.
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