剝 → 蹇
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 39: Obstruction
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 5).
Line 5
六五 貫魚。以宮人寵。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies. Everything acts to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
陽虎脅主，使得不通。火離為殃，年穀病傷。
Yang Hu coerces the lord, blocking free passage. Fire departs and brings disaster; the year's grain suffers blight and harm.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth decays into water above mountain — Obstruction, the hexagram of dangers that block the path. Yang Hu threatens the lord, making governance impossible. Fire from the Li trigram brings catastrophe, and the year's grain harvest is blighted. Yang Hu was the powerful retainer of the Jisun family in Lu who seized control from 504 to 502 BC, attacking the duke's residence and holding the state hostage. The verse links political usurpation to agricultural failure: when a servant masters the master, not only the court but the fields themselves suffer. From Splitting Apart to Obstruction, the mountain that was already crumbling now has water pooled atop it — impassable terrain. Yang Hu's coercion blocks the channels of legitimate governance as water blocks the mountain path.
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