Hexagram 11: Peace → Hexagram 47: Oppression

Peace
Earth / Heaven
Oppression
Lake / Water
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5).

Line 1

初九 拔茅茹。以其彙。征吉。

pulling
máothatch
by the roots
thereby
uprooting its
huìwhole cluster
zhēngto expedite
promising

Nine at the beginning means: When ribbon grass is pulled up, the sod comes with it. Each according to his kind. Undertakings bring good fortune.

Line 3

九三 无平不陂。无往不復。艱貞无咎。勿恤其孚。于食有福。

there is not
pínglevel
without
slope
there is no
wǎnggoing
without
return
jiāndifficult
zhēnto persist
without
jiùmistake
do not
worry
these
certainties
in
shínourishment
yǒufind
happiness

Nine in the third place means: No plain not followed by a slope. No going not followed by a return. He who remains persevering in danger Is without blame. Do not complain about this truth; Enjoy the good fortune you still possess.

Line 4

六四 翩翩。不富以其鄰。不戒以孚。

piānfluttering
piānfluttering
no
enrichment
making use of
one's
línneighbors
avoid
jièlimit
the ways
trust

Six in the fourth place means: He flutters down, not boasting of his wealth, Together with his neighbor, Guileless and sincere.

Line 5

六五 帝乙歸妹。以祉元吉。

Lord
Yi (next to the last Shang Emperor)
guīgiving
mèihis little sister
meant
zhǐhappiness
yuánfirst-rate
good fortune

Six in the fifth place means: The sovereign I Gives his daughter in marriage. This brings blessing And supreme good fortune.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramEarth LakeThe Receptive → The Joyous
Lower TrigramHeaven WaterThe Creative → The Deep

Yilin Verse

振急絕理,常陽不雨;物病焦乾,華實無有。

Frantic and unraveled beyond reason; unbroken sun without rain. All things sicken, scorched and dry; flower and fruit are nowhere found.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Earth above heaven, Peace's moisture violently expelled. Conditions snap and order collapses; relentless yang dominates without rain. Plants wither and parch; neither flower nor fruit survives. This is drought as systemic failure: not a temporary dry spell but a permanent imbalance where nourishing yin has been entirely banished. The 'constant yang without rain' (常陽不雨) describes a cosmological catastrophe — heaven's energy raging unchecked with no earthly counterpart to moderate it. From Peace to Oppression, the lake drains dry over water that cannot rise. The transformation doubles the drought: what was merely dry becomes utterly exhausted, a waterless lake over a trapped spring.

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