蹇 → 履
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 10: Treading
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 3
九三 往蹇來反。
Nine in the third place means: Going leads to obstructions; Hence he comes back.
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
揚風偃草，塵埃俱起。清濁溷散，忠直隱處。
The wind spreads and the grass bends flat; dust rises everywhere. Clear and murky mix in confusion; the loyal and upright hide away.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain stalls all movement, and a fierce wind flattens the grass, stirring dust until clean and foul swirl together indistinguishably. The loyal and upright have no choice but to withdraw into seclusion. The image of wind bending grass is a classic political metaphor from the Analerta: 'The virtue of the superior man is the wind; the virtue of the common man is the grass.' But here the wind is not virtuous influence — it is a storm that obliterates moral distinctions, driving the worthy into hiding. From Obstruction to Treading, heaven stands above the lake as one treads carefully beside a tiger. The honest man's retreat is itself an act of treading: knowing when the landscape has grown too dangerous for integrity to survive in the open.
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