蹇 → 乾
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 往蹇來譽。
Six at the beginning means: Going leads to obstructions, Coming meets with praise.
Line 2
六二 王臣蹇蹇。匪躬之故。
Six in the second place means: The King's servant is beset by obstruction upon obstruction, But it is not his own fault.
Line 4
六四 往蹇來連。
Six in the fourth place means: Going leads to obstructions, Coming leads to union.
Line 6
上六 往蹇來碩。吉。利見大人。
Six at the top means: Going leads to obstructions, Coming leads to great good fortune. It furthers one to see the great man.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
叔盻拘冤，祁子自邑。乘遽解患，羊舌免脫，賴得全生。
Shu Xi was held in false imprisonment; Qi Zi fled from his own city. Mounting a courier horse to escape disaster; Yang She slipped free, and was fortunate to survive.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water pools upon the mountain, and the path forward is blocked — yet rescue comes from an unexpected quarter. Shu Xiang (Yangshe Xi), the celebrated minister of Jin, was unjustly imprisoned when his brother Yangshe Hu fell afoul of the powerful Fan clan. The retired elder Qi Xi, renowned for recommending talent without regard to personal ties, rode from his estate to intercede with Fan Xuanzi. Thanks to Qi Xi's intervention, Shu Xiang was freed and restored to office. The Yangshe clan survived what could have been annihilation. From Obstruction to The Creative, the pattern shifts from mountain-blocked water to heaven upon heaven — pure self-generating initiative. The man trapped in another's feud escapes not by force but through the principled advocacy of a sage elder, and what was frozen obstruction becomes unbounded creative momentum.
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