咸 → 困
Hexagram 31: Influence → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 3).
Line 2
六二 咸其腓。凶。居吉。
Six in the second place means: The influence shows itself in the calves of the legs. Misfortune. Tarrying brings good fortune.
Line 3
九三 咸其股。執其隨。往吝。
Nine in the third place means: The influence shows itself in the thighs. Holds to that which follows it. To continue is humiliating.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
空槽注器，豚彘不至，長弓祝雞，雄父飛去。
Empty trough, vessels laid out; pigs never arrive. The long bow prays for the rooster; the cock flies away.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake upon a mountain, but the troughs are empty and the offerings fail. An empty feeding trough awaits an animal that never arrives; pigs and boars are nowhere to be found. A long bow is drawn to salute the sacrificial rooster, but the old cock flies away. Every preparation meets with absence: the vessel has no content, the ritual has no animal, the hunt has no quarry. From Influence to Oppression, the mountain's receptive openness becomes a lake drained of water — the marsh with no moisture, the ultimate image of depletion. The verse literalizes this image: containers without contents, sacrifices without victims, weapons aimed at empty air. When receptivity receives nothing, influence becomes the experience of one's own emptiness amplified by futile effort.
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