師 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 7: The Army → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 師出以律。否臧凶。
Six at the beginning means: An army must set forth in proper order. If the order is not good, misfortune threatens.
Line 2
九二 在師中吉。无咎。王三錫命。
Nine in the second place means: In the midst of the army. Good fortune. No blame. The king bestows a triple decoration.
Line 4
六四 師左次。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: The army retreats. No blame.
Line 6
上六 大君有命。開國承家。小人勿用。
Six at the top means: The great prince issues commands, Founds states, vests families with fiefs. Inferior people should not be employed.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
采唐沫鄉，要我桑中。失信不會，憂思約帶。
Gathering herbs at the village of Mo; meeting me among the mulberries. Trust is broken, no rendezvous comes; grief and longing tighten the belt.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water hidden within the earth conceals longing beneath discipline. Gathering tang-grass at Mei, the tryst is promised among the mulberries — a direct quotation from the Shijing ode 'Sang Zhong,' the most famous song of illicit meetings in Chinese poetry. But the rendezvous fails: the promise is broken, the meeting never happens. Consumed by longing, the waist grows thin enough to tighten the belt. From The Army to Biting Through, fire and thunder administer justice. The broken tryst meets its reckoning: what was hidden must be bitten through and exposed. The unkept promise festers until the system of accountability catches up.
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