既濟 → 萃
Hexagram 63: After Completion → Hexagram 45: Gathering Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4).
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 3
九三 高宗伐鬼方。三年克之。小人勿用。
Nine in the third place means: The Illustrious Ancestor Disciplines the Devil's Country. After three years he conquers it. Inferior people must not be employed.
Line 4
六四 繻有衣袽。終日戒。
Six in the fourth place means: The finest clothes turn to rags. Be careful all day long.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
飲酒醉酗，跳起爭鬭。伯傷叔僵，東家治喪。
Cups and plates in disarray, wine overturns the table. Glaring at each other, fists rain down. The lamp shatters, the wall cracks, the neighbor's dog barks — at dawn, sweeping up blood, regret comes too late.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water sits above fire, but this verse is a modern rewrite. The original reads: 'Drinking turns to drunken brawling; they leap up and fight. The elder brother is wounded, the younger collapses. At the eastern neighbor's house, they prepare for a funeral.' Wine transforms fellowship into violence with lethal speed. Brothers who shared a cup now draw blood, and by morning someone is dead. From After Completion to Gathering, fire-and-water order yields to the lake gathering upon the earth — a congregation that should unite. Yet the verse inverts Gathering's promise: the assembly that pooled together over wine becomes a site of fratricide. Gathering without discipline is combustion. The completed celebration, unchecked by restraint, gathers not communion but casualties.
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