中孚 → 遯
Hexagram 61: Inner Truth → Hexagram 33: Retreat
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4).
Line 1
初九 虞吉。有他不燕。
Nine at the beginning means: Being prepared brings good fortune. If there are secret designs, it is disquieting.
Line 2
九二 鳴鶴在陰。其子和之。我有好爵。吾與爾靡之。
Nine in the second place means: A crane calling in the shade. Its young answers it. I have a good goblet. I will share it with you.
Line 3
六三 得敵。或鼓或罷。或泣或歌。
Six in the third place means: He finds a comrade. Now he beats the drum, now he stops. Now he sobs, now he sings.
Line 4
六四 月幾望。馬匹亡。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: The moon nearly at the full. The team horse goes astray. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
旦醉病酒,暮多瘳愈,不反為咎。
Drunk at dawn, sick from wine; by evening mostly recovered. Not changing brings blame.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind stirs above the lake, but one wakes drunk and sick from wine. By evening the illness abates; the mistake lies in not turning back sooner. The verse is a miniature parable of overindulgence: morning brings the hangover, evening brings recovery, but the real error was not stopping when one should have. From Inner Truth to Retreat, sincerity meets heaven above the mountain — the image of the gentleman distancing himself from what is unworthy. The morning drunkenness is the excess one failed to retreat from; the evening recovery comes only after the body enforces the withdrawal the will did not make. Retreat's wisdom is knowing the moment of 'enough' before the body forces the lesson.
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