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This is the infamous line that comes after the so called "xiantian" arrangement of the trigams is mentioned in the shuogua zhuan - the commentary/wing describing the trigrams.

Wilhelm / Baynes has:

Counting that which is going into the past depends on the forward movement. Knowing that which is to come depends on the backward movement. This is why the Book of Changes has backward moving numbers.

Rutt has:

Reckoning the past is to follow time's passing, knowing the future is to move against time, thus yi reckons time in its coming and going.

u/hmesker has a video about this: Backward Moving Numbers (opens in a new tab).

I've had a go at it in the past, but it didn't satisfy me.

After working a bit more with my own translation project, and coming to really appreciate the idea of the lines moving in relationships between the trigrams, it became much more clear to me that the text was largely focused on these relationships and these movements up and down the trigram.

In particular, we have these two terms, 往 Wang and 来 Lai, that are frequently used in the Yi text. And they are the words used to say explicitly when a line is going toward another line, or staying put to receive another line.

The Xici Zhuang (Great Commentary) says (B6):

In all cases of Change, clearly distinguishing going toward (Wang) and closely investigating receiving (Lai), and then the secret is visibly revealed from obscurity, exposed and then appropriately named, differentiating phenomena and setting right the teachings....

So, I figured it was time to translate this section utilizing an appreciation for the way Wang and Lai are used in the text itself, for that is likely what the Zhuan/Commentary is commenting on.

And I got basically the title:

The fated goer submits; the perceptive summoner receives; thus change receives the fated.

It refers to the line that is leaving its position, going toward the position of the other line, the one doing the receiving.

We have our previous statement in A11 about:

Consequently closing up the doorway speaks of kun, opening the doorway for use and development speaks of qian; this closing up, this breaking open, speaks of bian (alteration/molting/change); Inexhaustible Wang and Lai speaks of permeating all the way through....

Qian and Kun are used to represent yang-ness and yin-ness. Zhu Xi also takes this stance in his commentary, though he gets something different with it.

So we are shown that yang and yin, when they come together, open the doorway of change.

And this line in the shuogua zhuan, shows us how and where that happens, in relation to wang and lai.

So let us break it down:

數往者順，知來者逆，是故易逆數也。

• 數 shu - number, numeral, mathematical / a number of, quantity of, numerous, numerology, the ability to see analogies among phenomena and their symbolic numbers, incl. with the lines of the Yijing hexagrams, appetency, skill; craft, art, technique. / decreed fortune, fate (< what can be counted on). | to count out, enumerate; lay out one-by-one; reckon, figure. / rebuke; blame, reprove, enumerate the faults of

• 往 wang - go, go toward, wend, fare | turn toward, incline toward, take refuge with

• 者 zhe - like the 'er' in english as a suffix to show that the one before, is the one that is doing something. "that which" / "the one who"

• 順 shun - compliant, compliance, accommodate, accommodating; amenable (to), conform(ing) (with); go along with, accept(ing); submissive. / follow the course of, go with the current; not make waves

So here I would take the last three first - we have a "go-er", that which goes, and in going they are complying.

That gives us context for how to use shu. It is being used to modify our go-er, our object. So using it as a noun is out.

So we can use it as a verb - in this case it is a transitive verb: to count something, to reckon something. But when a transitive verb is placed ahead of something, it is used in the past tense, following the rules of Vogelsang.

So the past tense of reckoning, reckoned. The reckoned go-er. But, that doesn't get it. The reckoning is something that is already done, already calculated - like fate. Our line here is inherently going to magnetize toward that other line, and thus its going toward that other line is already calculated. So it is counted out, can be counted on. Thus, fated.

Thus, the fated go-er.

But let's make that a bit easier in english:

The fated to go toward is that which complies and submits to going along with,

Perhaps we should also talk about how wang and lai are used to mean past and future now as well.

If we imagine time as a river, we are standing in it. If we allow ourselves to flow along with its current, that is wang, going along with.

If we turn upstream, to face what comes, we are receiving the future. Summoning it even.

This sense is implied here too, in how we go toward and along with what we are magnetized to go toward in the flows of time. And how in remaining fixed, we may turn to face what comes, listening and perceiving its coming.

So moving on:

知來者逆

• 知 zhi - know, perceive with senses or mind, factual knowing / comprehend, understand | recognize, acknowledge, be(come) acquainted with / appreciate; rightly recognize and value true quality. / be on terms of closeness with, befriend | make known, reveal; notify | have mastery over, control, manage, superintend

• 來 lai wheat | come, come to, arrive / cause to come; summon; bring along | the future, what is coming

• 者 zhe - like the 'er' in english as a suffix to show that the one before, is the one that is doing something. "that which" / "the one who"

• 逆 ni - welcome, receive / meet straight on, confront, stand opposite | go against, counterpose, contravert, contrary, go backward, against the current, go upstream | anticipate, presume, conjecture / in advance, beforehand.

So we have the same sentence structure as before. But here I would use zhi as an intransitive verb. When an intransitive verb is placed before its object, it becomes activated, like with an 'ing'. So perceiving. Understanding. Here I take it as the sense of becoming acquainted with and recognizing. Which perceiving also can function to mean.

So the perceiving summoner - the one awaiting what comes, causing it to come - the one who does this, welcomes, receives, meets straight on, face to face, and is there before it.

In this way we are being shown the context in which to understand what "lai" means. It is not "coming to" in the sense of going somewhere. That would be Wang's role. It is receiving. Anticipating. Awaiting in recognition. It has advance knowledge of, but that advance knowledge is in an active sense.

So:

The perceptive summoner receives and meets head on,

Next, bringing it all together:

是故易逆數也。

• 是 shu - this, these, those

• 故 gu - reason, cause, purpose

• 易 Yi - change

• 逆 ni - welcome, receive / meet straight on, confront, stand opposite | go against, counterpose, contravert, contrary, go backward, against the current, go upstream | anticipate, presume, conjecture / in advance, beforehand.

• 數 shu - number, numeral, mathematical / a number of, quantity of, numerous, numerology, the ability to see analogies among phenomena and their symbolic numbers, incl. with the lines of the Yijing hexagrams, appetency, skill; craft, art, technique. / decreed fortune, fate (< what can be counted on). | to count out, enumerate; lay out one-by-one; reckon, figure. / rebuke; blame, reprove, enumerate the faults of

• 也。ye - final sentence partical, I find it mostly used as a mechanism to justify something - because, due to, on account of - and this is placed at the beginning of its sentence.

So we have Ye coming together with ShuGu, to together mean "for this reason" - or "so therefore", "so consequently",

Then our Yi,

Then Ni and Shu.

Yi Ni Shu, or: Change receives reckon. We could take this as a verbal clause that means Change receives and reckons the counting of.

However, that doesn't quite fit, we need to change the last word to make sense of it. But in classical chinese, when a transitive verb - our counting/reckoning here - is placed at the end without an object to "reckon with", it is made passive. Thus, just like when it was used in the first phrase, we have our "reckoned" here, and we can apply the same logic to it to arrive at "fated" again.

Meanwhile the Ni / receives can remain active just as it is.

So therefore, change receives the fated.

Which makes sense.

We have our lines/energies/participants that go toward, leaving their positions to find a place to be received. It is when they arrive at these places, that they greet with change, and the doorway of alteration and transformation opens up.

The fated to go toward is that which complies and submits to going along with, the perceptive summoner receives and meets head on, so therefore, change receives the fated.

Breaking it down again....

That which can be counted upon to go toward is that which complies and submits to going along with, the recognizing, anticipating, acknowledging, perceiving [line that] caused it to come [via the magnetism that gave it a place to want to go toward in the beginning] receives and meets it head on, so therefore, change receives and meets head on that which can be counted upon [to go toward].