節 → 未濟
Hexagram 60: Limitation → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 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 4
六四 安節亨。
Six in the fourth place means: Contented limitation. Success.
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
利盡得媒，時不我來。鳴雌深涉，寡宿獨居。
Profit exhausted, the matchmaker obtained; yet the time does not come to me. The calling hen wades deep waters; she nests and dwells alone.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water over lake measures the terms of union, and this verse finds those terms unfulfilled. Resources are exhausted in seeking a matchmaker, yet the right moment refuses to arrive. A lone female bird wades deep water, calling — a widow nesting in solitude. The verse layers three images of failed connection: the matchmaker who cannot be secured, the season that will not turn, and the bird whose mate never comes. From Limitation to Before Completion, the transformation suspends resolution indefinitely. Fire over water — the two elements that should complete each other remain unable to interact. Everything is almost in place but nothing is consummated. Limitation's careful preparation meets Before Completion's permanent threshold: the bride price is gathered, the matchmaker sought, the call sent forth across deep water — yet the far shore remains unreached, and the solitary bird nests alone.
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