師 → 艮
Hexagram 7: The Army → Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
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 3
六三 師或輿尸。凶。
Six in the third place means: Perchance the army carries corpses in the wagon. 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
鶴鳴九皋，避世隱居。抱朴守真，竟不隨時。
The crane calls from the nine marshes; shunning the world, dwelling in seclusion. Embracing simplicity, holding to the genuine; in the end, he does not follow the times.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water hidden within the earth releases its finest to the wilderness, and a crane cries in the nine marshes — its voice carrying far across the wilds. The image comes from the Shijing ode 'He Ming,' where the crane's distant call symbolizes hidden talent that makes itself known despite obscurity. Yet this crane chooses seclusion: embracing simplicity and guarding authenticity, it refuses to follow the fashions of the age. From The Army to Keeping Still, twin mountains stand in contemplation. The army's collective mission gives way to individual withdrawal — the recluse whose talent is real but whose conscience forbids serving a compromised world. Stillness here is not passivity but principled refusal.
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