未濟 → 大有
Hexagram 64: Before Completion → Hexagram 14: Great Possession
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初六 濡其尾。吝。
Six at the beginning means: He gets his tail in the water. Humiliating.
Line 3
六三 未濟征凶。利涉大川。
Six in the third place means: Before completion, attack brings misfortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
初雖驚惶，後乃无傷，受其福慶。
Thunder suddenly crashes — everyone drops to the ground. The rain passes, the sky clears — a rainbow appears. The startled deer turns its head: the forest is already calm. Tender grass by the stream — spring has arrived.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above water, the situation yet unresolved. The original verse reads: 'At first there is alarm and panic, but afterward no harm — blessings and celebration follow.' The modern rewrite dramatizes this arc with thunder, rain, rainbow, and startled deer, but the core message is identical: initial terror gives way to unexpected fortune. From Before Completion to Great Possession, fire-over-water transforms into fire blazing in heaven — the supreme image of illuminated abundance. The fright that opens the verse is the last tremor of Before Completion's disorder; what follows is the clearing sky of Great Possession, where fire above heaven means the good overwhelms the bad. The deer turns its head and finds the forest already calm.
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