小畜 → 明夷
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
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
狗無前足，陰謀其北；為身賊害，何以安息。
A dog without front legs; yin conspires in the north. Bringing harm to its own body; how can it find rest?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven sinks into fire buried beneath the earth — the Darkening of the Light. A dog without forelegs drags itself forward; conspiracies brew in the north. The body is wounded by treachery; how can there be any rest? From Small Taming to Darkening of the Light, the verse plunges into Ming Yi's world of intelligence suppressed and light extinguished. The maimed dog is a visceral image of crippled agency — still alive, still struggling, but fundamentally impaired. The northern conspiracy suggests danger from the direction of yin and cold. Ming Yi's counsel is to govern the multitude by dimming one's own brilliance while remaining inwardly clear. Here the darkness is not chosen but inflicted, and survival demands endurance without the luxury of rest.
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