中孚

Hexagram 61: Inner Truth → Hexagram 40: Deliverance

中孚
Inner Truth
Wind / Lake
Deliverance
Thunder / Water
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 6).

Line 1

初九 虞吉。有他不燕。

readiness
promising
yǒuto be
more than this
no
yàncomfort

Nine at the beginning means: Being prepared brings good fortune. If there are secret designs, it is disquieting.

Line 4

六四 月幾望。馬匹亡。无咎。

yuèmoon
almost
wàngfull
horse
of a pair
wángruns away
no
jiùblame

Six in the fourth place means: The moon nearly at the full. The team horse goes astray. No blame.

Line 5

九五 有孚攣如。无咎。

yǒubeing
true
luánbond
is like
no
jiùblame

Nine in the fifth place means: He possesses truth, which links together. No blame.

Line 6

上九 翰音登于天。貞凶。

hànrooster's
yīncrowing
dēngascend
up to
tiānheaven
zhēnpersistence
xiōngunfortunate

Nine at the top means: Cockcrow penetrating to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramWind ThunderThe Gentle → The Arousing
Lower TrigramLake WaterThe Joyous → The Deep

Yilin Verse

伯夷叔齊,貞廉之師。以德防患,憂禍不存。

Pine and cypress are last to wither — only in the year's coldest days is this known. A crane stands among chickens, different without a word.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Wind stirs above the lake, and the original verse names Boyi and Shuqi — paragons of incorruptible loyalty who serve as teachers of integrity. Through virtue they ward off calamity; worry and misfortune do not touch them. Boyi and Shuqi were princes of Guzhu who refused to eat Zhou grain after the conquest of Shang, starving to death on Mount Shouyang rather than compromise their principles. From Inner Truth to Deliverance, sincerity meets thunder and rain — the storm that washes away what is obstructing. Their moral stance is itself the act of deliverance: by refusing complicity with what they deemed illegitimate, they dissolved the hold that political coercion had over their conscience. Integrity became its own liberation.

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