Why does the text say “a misplaced comb in the wrong hair”? This line is, in its way, darkly comic. In the Original Hexagram, the Gen trigram formed by lines three, four, and five moves downward to comb the Kun side below. When the third line moves, the focal player encounters a new Gen trigram rather than the previously compliant Kun. This new Gen has two layers of meaning. First, Gen represents an obstacle, suggesting that the focal player now faces resistance where it expected compliance. Second, Gen represents another scrutiny authority — the hand holding a different comb. The focal player has crossed the boundary of its own jurisdiction and placed its comb on a head it was never meant to touch.

Meanwhile, the original Gen shrinks into half a Gen trigram, implying that its own power is weakened. The combined image shows that the Gen side has mistaken the object that should be scrutinized and has reached into another Gen authority’s territory — exactly like a hair-combing specialist placing the comb on the wrong customer’s head. This indicates both that the original Gen side has acted upon the wrong object and that it is not a fully qualified scrutiny officer. Why does the Gen side make this error? The image formed by lines two through five in Transformed L3 explains: these lines become Li above and Kan below. Li represents the eyes and the overseeing mechanism; Kan represents darkness and obscuration. The person using the fine-tooth comb has poor eyesight, cannot see the situation clearly, and makes an error of judgment. Moreover, the Kan trigram formed by lines two, three, and four is stacked with another Gen, suggesting that a rival Gen side deliberately creates this obscuration — misconduct and infighting within the scrutiny system itself.

What is the result of this action? In the Hidden Hexagram, the lower trigram changes from Qian into Dui. Qian represents fullness and material abundance; Dui represents impairment and scarcity. The conflict between scrutiny institutions weakens the strength of the state and harms people’s livelihoods. At the same time, the Hidden Hexagram changes into Li over Dui, forming the Kui hexagram — the hexagram of broken relationship. This indicates that the bond between the focal player and the Qian side is damaged, and also that the Li side changes from gaining benefit to suffering loss.

In the hair-combing scene, Dui represents young lice, while Li, as the opposite of Kan, carries the image of overcoming crisis. The Li-Dui image therefore suggests that the young lice on the head escape harm because of the focal player’s improper operation. In other words, the action fails to achieve its purpose: the lice survive. This is an unfortunate scenario for every party involved.

The third line stands in the middle of the hexagram, where information is complex and mistaken action often appears — this is true across the sixty-four hexagrams. Here, the scrutiny officers act improperly and two scrutiny systems come into conflict. As a result, the Qian side is weakened, the scrutiny mechanism is impaired, and the young lice escape. This also prepares the ground for the perfunctory, self-protective conduct of the scrutiny officer in the fourth line.