師 → 井
Hexagram 7: The Army → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
六三 師或輿尸。凶。
Six in the third place means: Perchance the army carries corpses in the wagon. Misfortune.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
范子妙材,戮辱傷膚。然後相國,封為應侯。
Master Fan, a man of wondrous talent; punished and scarred in body. Afterward he became chancellor; enfeoffed as Marquis of Ying.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water hidden within the earth holds talent in obscurity until the moment of recognition. 'Fan-zi' of wonderful ability was first subjected to corporal punishment and humiliation — beaten, his body scarred. This refers to Fan Sui (also called Fan Ju), the Warring States strategist who served Wei but was falsely accused of espionage. His patron Wei Qi had him flogged nearly to death and thrown into a latrine. He escaped to Qin under a false name, eventually became Chancellor, and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Ying. From The Army to The Well, water drawn up through wood nourishes all without moving. Fan Sui's ordeal mirrors the well's nature: talent buried deep, then raised through the proper channel to serve the community above.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store