遯 → 困
Hexagram 33: Retreat → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
Line 2
六二 執之用黃牛之革。莫之勝說。
Six in the second place means: he holds him fast with yellow oxhide. No one can tear him loose.
Line 3
九三 係遯。有疾厲。畜臣妾吉。
Nine in the third place means: A halted retreat Is nerve-wracking and dangerous. To retain people as men- and maidservants Brings good fortune.
Line 6
上九 肥遯无不利。
Nine at the top means: Cheerful retreat. Everything serves to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
雷車不藏，隱隱西行，霖雨三旬，流為河江，使國憂凶。
The thunder chariot will not be stored; it rumbles westward, hidden. Torrential rain for thirty days; flowing into rivers and streams — bringing the kingdom grief and calamity.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the mountain drains into lake over water — Oppression, where resources are exhausted. The thunder chariot cannot be stored away; it rumbles westward with a hidden roar. Torrential rain falls for thirty days, swelling into rivers and flooding the land, bringing calamity to the state. The thunder chariot evokes uncontrollable celestial force — a storm that refuses to abate. Thirty days of rain transforms streams into rivers and rivers into devastation. From Retreat to Oppression, the mountain's strategic withdrawal is overwhelmed by forces beyond containment. The lake has no water — Oppression's image — yet here water is everywhere, destructive and unchecked. The oppression comes not from drought but from drowning: the retreating figure finds that what he tried to contain has broken free and now overwhelms the very state he sought to protect.
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