中孚 → 萃
Hexagram 61: Inner Truth → Hexagram 45: Gathering Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
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 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.
Line 6
上九 翰音登于天。貞凶。
Nine at the top means: Cockcrow penetrating to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
三羖六䍧，相隨俱行。迷入空澤，遙涉虎廬。為所傷賊，死於牙腹。
Three he-goats and six ewes; traveling together in a line. Lost in an empty marsh; wandering into the tiger's den. Wounded and killed; dying in jaws and belly.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind stirs above the lake as a flock of three black goats and six hornless sheep follow one another, wandering together. They stray into an empty marsh, then wander far into the tiger's lair. Mauled by the predator, they perish in its jaws. The verse is a parable of leaderless following: the flock moves as one but has no shepherd and no direction, drifting from open ground into lethal territory. From Inner Truth to Gathering, sincerity meets the lake above the earth, where people congregate. Yet gathering without discernment is the flock's fatal error. The marsh that should pool abundance instead pools danger; the crowd's togetherness becomes collective vulnerability when no one questions where the path leads.
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