小畜 → 觀
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 20: Contemplation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3).
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 3
九三 輿說輻。夫妻反目。
Nine in the third place means: The spokes burst out of the wagon wheels. Man and wife roll their eyes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
駕駟逐狐，輪掛荊棘；車不結轍，公子無得。
Driving a four-horse team to chase the fox; the wheels catch on thorns and briars. The carriage cannot hold its track; the young lord gains nothing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven settles into wind coursing over the earth — contemplation from a high vantage. A four-horse chariot chases a fox, but the wheels catch in thorns. The chariot cannot complete its tracks; the young lord gains nothing. From Small Taming to Contemplation, the gentle wind that refined heaven's force now surveys the earth with discerning eyes. Guan's image is the wind moving across the land, as the ancient kings toured the regions to observe the people. Yet here observation is replaced by reckless pursuit. The fox — a creature of cunning and evasion — cannot be caught by brute speed alone. The thorns punish haste. Contemplation's lesson: look before you chase, or the quarry will always escape.
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