未濟 → 艮
Hexagram 64: Before Completion → Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鹿求其子，虎廬之里。唐伯季耳，貪不我許。
A lamb enters the forest searching for its mother — deep in the woods, wolf tracks are everywhere. Crying bleats go unanswered — moonlight among the pines, shadows upon shadows.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above water, and the vulnerable creature enters danger. The original verse reads: 'The deer seeks its fawn in the tiger's lair. Tang Bo and Ji Er are greedy and will not spare me.' The deer-in-tiger's-den is an image of innocence walking into predation, a parent's love leading them into mortal danger. Tang Bo and Ji Er appear to be local lords or figures known for rapacity. From Before Completion to Keeping Still, fire-over-water transforms into doubled mountain — the image of absolute stillness, of thinking that does not stray beyond its proper bounds. The verse is a stark warning: the mountain's stillness here is not serenity but paralysis. The deer cannot move; the tiger's lair permits no exit. Before Completion's disorder resolves into the most frozen form of non-completion.
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