Splitting Apart

剝床以足，蔑貞凶。

Stripping the bed at its feet. Constancy is being destroyed. Misfortune.

Stripping begins at the yielding bottom line, at the bed's feet; firming it changes lower earth to thunder and produces Hexagram 27.

剝床以辨，蔑貞凶。

Stripping the bed at its frame. Constancy is being destroyed. Misfortune.

At Line 2, stripping has moved from the feet into the bed's frame. A firm line here changes lower earth to water and gives Hexagram 4.

剝之，无咎。

Stripping it away. No fault.

Line 3 is yielding like the lines around it, but its text alone in this sequence declares no fault; it corresponds to the firm top line. Firming it turns lower earth into mountain and produces Hexagram 52.

剝床以膚，凶。

Stripping the bed up to the skin. Misfortune.

Stripping reaches the skin at Line 4, the first yielding place of the upper mountain trigram. When this line becomes firm, mountain changes to fire and the figure is Hexagram 35.

貫魚，以宮人寵，无不利。

A string of fish, receiving favor like the palace women. Favorable in every respect.

Line 5 leads the yielding lines in an ordered group, like fish on a string. The palace image compares their reception of favor to that of court women. Firming Line 5 changes upper Mountain to Wind and produces Hexagram 20.

碩果不食，君子得輿，小人剝廬。

A great fruit remains uneaten. The exemplary person receives a carriage; the small person strips away the hut.

The remaining great fruit and the two social outcomes stand at the figure's only firm line, at the top. If it yields, no firm line remains and the figure becomes Hexagram 2.