師 → 无妄
Hexagram 7: The Army → Hexagram 25: Innocence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 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 5
六五 田有禽。利執言。无咎。長子帥師。弟子輿尸。貞凶。
Six in the fifth place means: There is game in the field. It furthers one to catch it. Without blame. Let the eldest lead the army. The younger transports corpses; Then perseverance brings misfortune.
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
江南多蝮，螫我手足。冤繁詰屈，痛徹心腹。
South of the river, many vipers; they sting my hands and feet. Grievances tangled and twisted; pain pierces heart and belly.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water hidden within the earth harbors unseen dangers, and south of the Yangtze the vipers swarm. They sting hands and feet; injustice multiplies in tangled knots, and pain pierces to the heart and gut. The viper-infested south evokes both literal frontier peril and the metaphor of malicious litigation — 'yuan-fan jie-qu' suggests grievances twisted beyond resolution. From The Army to Innocence, heaven's thunder should move all things without falseness. Yet the verse depicts a world where innocence offers no protection: one suffers calamity not through wrongdoing but through sheer misfortune. The Innocence hexagram's shadow side — disaster striking the blameless — is fully realized here.
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