恆 → 困
Hexagram 32: Duration → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
九三 不恆其德。或承之羞。貞吝。
Nine in the third place means: He who does not give duration to his character Meets with disgrace. Persistent humiliation.
Line 5
六五 恒其德貞。婦人吉。夫子凶。
Six in the fifth place means: Giving duration to one's character through perseverance. This is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
狼虎爭強，禮義不行，兼吞其國，齊晉無主。
Two tigers pounce — the bones are not yet cold; a wolf pack tears the carcass, blood staining the snow. The throne hangs empty with no one to sit it — beacon fires split in all four directions from the city tower.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder above wind, Duration's persistent order, meets lake above water — Oppression's drained reserves. The original verse reads: 'Wolves and tigers contend for dominance; propriety and righteousness cease to function. They annex and swallow each other's states; Qi and Jin are left without rulers.' The rewritten verse dramatizes the same scene with bloodier imagery, but the original captures the political reality directly. When predatory powers compete without moral restraint, states are consumed and thrones emptied. From Duration to Oppression, the steady rhythm collapses into a lake drained of water — all structure exhausted. Duration's constancy demands a moral foundation; without it, enduring competition produces only mutual destruction, and the great states of Qi and Jin sit leaderless amid the wreckage.
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