未濟 → 家人
Hexagram 64: Before Completion → Hexagram 37: The Family
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Line 1
初六 濡其尾。吝。
Six at the beginning means: He gets his tail in the water. Humiliating.
Line 2
九二 曳其輪。貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: He brakes his wheels. Perseverance brings good fortune.
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.
Line 4
九四 貞吉悔亡。震用伐鬼方。三年有賞于大國。
Nine in the fourth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears. Shock, thus to discipline the Devil's Country. For three years, great realms are awarded.
Line 5
六五 貞吉无悔。君子之光。有孚吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. No remorse. The light of the superior man is true. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
言與心詭，西行東坐。鯀湮洪水，佞賊為禍。
Words contradict the heart; westward talk, eastward sitting. Gun damming the floodwaters; cunning thieves bring calamity.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above water, and words betray the heart. What is said contradicts what is meant; the speaker faces west but sits facing east — every gesture is a lie. Gun, father of Yu the Great, tried to dam the floods by piling up earth, but his method only made the waters worse. Flattery and deceit bring ruin. Gun's failure is the classic example of wrong method applied with obstinate persistence: he used blockage where drainage was needed, and was executed for it. From Before Completion to the Family, fire-over-water transforms into wind issuing from fire. The Family hexagram demands that 'words have substance and actions have constancy.' Gun's verse is the anti-Family: words and heart diverge, method and reality split, and the household drowns in the flood of its own dishonesty.
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