節 → 坤
Hexagram 60: Limitation → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5).
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 2
九二 不出門庭。凶。
Nine in the second place means: Not going out of the gate and the courtyard Brings misfortune.
Line 5
九五 甘節吉。往有尚。
Nine in the fifth place means: Sweet limitation brings good fortune. Going brings esteem.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
探巢得雛,仇鵲俱來,使我心憂。
Reaching into the nest to seize a chick; vengeful magpies gather from all sides, filling my heart with dread.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water over lake governs through measure, yet someone reaches into the nest and seizes a chick. The parent magpies swarm in fury, turning the raider into prey. Anxiety floods the heart. The imagery echoes a proverb: disturbing another's nest invites collective retaliation. From Limitation to the Receptive, the transformation shifts from structured restraint to boundless earth — yet the boundlessness here is not gentle reception but overwhelming vulnerability. One who violates boundaries discovers that the earth, once provoked, offers no shelter. The stolen chick yields only enemies, and the thief's gain becomes the source of unending worry. Receptive openness, misread as passive weakness, turns hostile when its territory is breached.
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