節 → 小畜
Hexagram 60: Limitation → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
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 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
四亂不安，東西為患。退止我足，无出邦域。乃得全完，賴其生福。
Disorder on all sides, no peace; troubles from east and west. I halt my feet, staying within my domain. Thus I remain whole and intact, blessed by preservation.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water over lake holds the line, and here holding the line saves everything. Turmoil erupts on all four sides — east and west alike breed calamity. The response is to stop one's feet, refuse to leave the domain, and thereby preserve wholeness and earn the blessing of survival. The verse is an ode to strategic restraint: when the world convulses, the wisest move is not to move at all. From Limitation to Small Taming, the transformation refines this insight. Wind over heaven gently restrains what is vast — the smallest force holding back the greatest. The one who stays within borders while chaos rages outside practices exactly this art. Not every limit is a cage; sometimes the boundary is the only structure still standing.
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