小畜 → 咸
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 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 4
六四 有孚。血去惕出。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: If you are sincere, blood vanishes and fear gives way. No blame.
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
源出陵足，行於山趾；不為暴害，民得安居。
The spring rises at the foot of the hill, flowing along the mountain base. It does not cause violent harm; the people find peaceful dwelling.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven transforms into the lake resting upon the mountain — mutual influence without force. A spring emerges at the base of a hill, flowing along the mountain's foot. It causes no flooding or destruction; the people dwell in peace. From Small Taming to Influence, the verse is a miniature landscape of Xian's ideal: stimulation that nourishes without overwhelming. The mountain lake of Xian's image represents openness above receptivity — the gentleman who empties himself to receive others. Here the spring is the natural expression of that receptivity: water finding its way downhill through the gentlest gradient, sustaining the village below without violence. Influence at its purest is simply this: flowing where gravity takes you.
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