剥 Splitting Apart
Upper trigram: Mountain (the mountain) · Lower trigram: Earth (the earth)
Erosion — do not fight the stripping away.
Modern interpretation
Things are falling away, and resistance only wastes energy. Let the old structures strip down to the foundation. Protect what is truly essential and release the rest without bitterness — what remains will be stronger.
The Judgment · 卦辞
不利有攸往。
“Po indicates that (in the state which it symbolizes) it will not be advantageous to make a movement in any direction whatever.” — James Legge, The Yî King (1882)
The six lines · 爻辞
Read from the bottom line upward. Each line pairs the received Chinese text with Legge's English translation.
剥床以足，蔑贞凶。
“The first line, divided, shows one overturning the couch by injuring its legs. (The injury will go on to) the destruction of (all) firm correctness, and there will be evil.”
剥床以辨，蔑贞凶。
“The second line, divided, shows one overthrowing the couch by injuring its frame. (The injury will go on to) the destruction of (all) firm correctness, and there will be evil.”
剥之，无咎。
“The third line, divided, shows its subject among the overthrowers; but there will be no error.”
剥床以肤，凶。
“The fourth line, divided, shows its subject having overthrown the couch, and (going to injure) the skin (of him who lies on it). There will be evil.”
贯鱼以宫人宠，无不利。
“The fifth line, divided, shows (its subject leading on the others like) a string of fishes, and (obtaining for them) the favour that lights on the inmates of the palace. There will be advantage in every way.”
硕果不食，君子得舆，小人剥庐。
“The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject (as) a great fruit which has not been eaten. The superior man finds (the people again) as a chariot carrying him. The small men (by their course) overthrow their own dwellings.”
About changing lines
In a real I Ching reading, hexagrams are built by casting coins or yarrow stalks six times, bottom line first. Some lines come out “old” (unstable) — an old yin or old yang flips into its opposite, producing a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading. The changing lines are the moving parts of your answer: read their individual line statements above, and they point to the direction of change.
Ask a question and cast the coins — free, with a plain-English interpretation grounded in the classical text.
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