小畜 → 革
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 49: Revolution
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 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 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
晨風之翰，大舉就溫；昧過我邑，羿無所得。
The morning wind is hawk rises high, soaring toward the warmth. Swiftly it passes over my town; Yi the Archer gains nothing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven meets fire within the lake — Revolution's transformative blaze. The falcon of the Shijing's 'Chen Feng' ode soars high, departing for warmer climes at dawn. It passes swiftly over our settlement, and even Archer Yi with his divine bow gains nothing from the shot. From Small Taming to Revolution, the verse captures the essence of Ge: what is swift and decisive cannot be intercepted by the old order. Yi, the supreme archer who shot down nine suns, here represents the ancien regime's ultimate weapon — yet even he cannot strike the falcon in its moment of transformation. Revolution succeeds when the change is already airborne before the old guard can react. The bird has passed; the arrow finds only empty sky.
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