節 → 蠱
Hexagram 60: Limitation → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 不出戶庭。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Not going out of the door and the courtyard Is without blame.
Line 3
六三 不節若。則嗟若。无咎。
Six in the third place means: He who knows no limitation Will have cause to lament. No blame.
Line 5
九五 甘節吉。往有尚。
Nine in the fifth place means: Sweet limitation brings good fortune. Going brings esteem.
Line 6
上六 苦節貞凶。悔亡。
Six at the top means: Galling limitation. Perseverance brings misfortune. Remorse disappears.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
履階升墀，高登崔嵬。福祿洋溢，依天之威。
Treading stairs, ascending terraces, climbing high to lofty peaks. Blessings and prosperity overflow, resting upon heaven's might.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water over lake builds one step at a time, and this verse traces an ascent from threshold to summit. Climbing stairs, crossing the terrace, mounting the lofty peak — blessings and emoluments overflow, all sustained by heaven's authority. The imagery is of gradual, legitimate advancement through a court hierarchy: each step earned, each level sanctioned from above. From Limitation to Work on the Decayed, the transformation adds a corrective dimension. Wind stirs beneath the mountain, rousing what has grown stagnant. The one who climbs so high does so not merely to enjoy elevation but to repair what has deteriorated — to shake the dust from inherited institutions. Limitation's orderly ascent becomes the renovation that only someone who has earned their position can undertake.
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