既濟 → 未濟
Hexagram 63: After Completion → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 6 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
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 2
六二 婦喪其茀。勿逐。七日得。
Six in the second place means: The woman loses the curtain of her carriage. Do not run after it; On the seventh day you will get it.
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.
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.
Line 6
上六 濡其首。厲。
Six at the top means: He gets his head in the water. Danger.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
千柱百梁，終不傾僵，周宗寧康。
A thousand pillars and a hundred beams, never tilting or falling. The Zhou ancestral line rests in peace and health.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water sits above fire, and a thousand pillars with a hundred beams stand firm — the structure will never topple. The house of Zhou enjoys peace and prosperity. The verse is a declaration of architectural and dynastic permanence: the building's redundant support guarantees stability, and the Zhou royal house endures. From After Completion to Before Completion, fire-and-water order inverts into fire above water — everything still to be done. Yet the verse's confidence is unshaken: even facing the ultimate incompletion, the foundation is so thoroughly laid that it holds. The transition from After Completion to Before Completion is not collapse but renewal — the thousand pillars that survived one cycle are strong enough to begin the next.
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