既濟 → 剝
Hexagram 63: After Completion → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 5).
Line 1
初九 曳其輪。濡其尾。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: He breaks his wheels. He gets his tail in the water. No blame.
Line 5
九五 東鄰殺牛。不如西鄰之禴祭。實受其福。
Nine in the fifth place means: The neighbor in the east who slaughters an ox Does not attain as much real happiness As the neighbor in the west With his small offering.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
傾倚將顛，不能得存。英雄作業，家困无年。
Leaning and tilting, about to collapse, unable to survive. The hero's enterprise fails; the family is destitute, the year without harvest.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water sits above fire, but the structure is leaning and about to topple — nothing can be preserved. A hero builds his enterprise, yet his household falls to ruin within the year. The verse captures the tragedy of a capable person whose personal foundation crumbles even as ambition drives outward achievement. From After Completion to Splitting Apart, fire-and-water balance degrades into the mountain resting on bare earth — the last solid yang line perched atop five yin lines, erosion nearly complete. Completion does not guarantee permanence. When the base decays while attention is elsewhere, even heroic effort cannot arrest the collapse. The mountain splits from its foundation, and no amount of accomplishment can hold together what has rotted beneath.
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