臨 → 蹇

Commentary

Earth above the lake meets water upon the mountain — Obstruction's frozen impasse. Clumsy hands cannot manage the work; one cannot fell the sandalwood tree. The cart has no axle or shaft; the traveler suffers bitterly. Everything that should function is broken: the hands lack skill, the tree resists the axe, the cart cannot roll. The verse echoes the Shijing ode 'Fa Tan,' where woodcutters labor at sandalwood — a metaphor for hard, thankless work. From Approach to Obstruction, the lake's open accessibility freezes into mountain water's impassable barrier. When tools fail and skills fall short, the path forward is blocked at every turn. Obstruction demands that one turn inward to cultivate virtue rather than pushing forward with broken equipment.