小畜 → 謙
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 15: Modesty
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 復自道。何其咎。吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Return to the way. How could there be blame in this? Good fortune.
Line 2
九二 牽復。吉。
Nine in the second place means: He allows himself to be drawn into returning. Good fortune.
Line 5
九五 有孚攣如。富以其鄰。
Nine in the fifth place means: If you are sincere and loyally attached, You are rich in your neighbor.
Line 6
上九 既雨既處。尚德載。婦貞厲。月幾望。君子征凶。
Nine at the top means: The rain comes, there is rest. This is due to the lasting effect of character. Perseverance brings the woman into danger. The moon is nearly full. If the superior man persists, Misfortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
式微式微，憂禍相半；隔以岩山，室家分散。
Fading, fading away; worry and misfortune share equal measure. Separated by cliffs and mountains; the household is scattered apart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven descends into earth concealing the mountain — humility pressed to its painful limit. 'Declining, declining' — the verse opens by quoting the Shijing ode 'Shi Wei,' a lament of those forced into degrading service: 'Why not go home?' Worry and misfortune split evenly between them, but rocky mountains intervene, and the household is scattered. From Small Taming to Modesty, the transformation should bring the mountain's quiet dignity hidden within the earth. Yet the verse shows modesty's shadow: when humility is forced rather than chosen, it becomes exile. The mountain that should elevate the lowly instead separates the family. Qian's virtue only works when one still has a home to be humble in.
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