師 → 未濟
Hexagram 7: The Army → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 6).
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
鑽木取火，掘地索泉。主母飢渴，手為心禍。
Drilling wood for fire, digging earth for springs. The mistress thirsts and hungers; her hands become her heart's undoing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water hidden within the earth reaches back to the most primitive acts of survival: drilling wood to make fire, digging earth to find a spring. The mistress of the household is parched and famished, and the hand itself becomes the instrument of the heart's ruin. Fire born from friction and water found through excavation are the two primordial technologies — yet here they fail to sustain. The hand that drills and digs destroys what it meant to save. From The Army to Before Completion, fire hovers above water without contact, each element visible but unable to serve the other. The army's resources exist but cannot be brought to bear — so close to completion, yet the final crossing remains unmade.
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