渙 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 59: Dispersion → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
Line 1
初六 用拯馬壯吉。
Six at the beginning means: He brings help with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Line 2
九二 渙奔其机。悔亡。
Nine in the second place means: At the dissolution He hurries to that which supports him. Remorse disappears.
Line 4
六四 渙其羣元吉。渙有丘。匪夷所思。
Six in the fourth place means: He dissolves his bond with his group. Supreme good fortune. Dispersion leads in turn to accumulation. This is something that ordinary men do not think of.
Line 5
九五 渙汗其大號。渙。王居无咎。
Nine in the fifth place means: His loud cries are as dissolving as sweat. Dissolution! A king abides without blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
抱空握虛，鳴教我賈，利去不來。
Embracing emptiness, grasping at void; my teacher shows me how to trade. Profit departs and does not return.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over water scatters substance into air. Hands embrace emptiness, arms grasp the void — nothing solid remains. A cry goes out teaching how to trade, but profit departs and never returns. This is commerce in a dispersed world: the goods are phantoms, the lessons hollow, and the gains evaporate. Fire above thunder creates the image of Biting Through — the jaw closing on an obstacle, enforcing order by removing what blocks it. From Dispersion to Biting Through, the transformation is severe: when gentle scattering empties everything of value, only decisive, judicial force can restore substance. The empty hands must first acknowledge they hold nothing before the jaw can bite down on what truly obstructs.
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