蹇 → 大有
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 14: Great Possession
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 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 5
九五 大蹇朋來。
Nine in the fifth place means: In the midst of the greatest obstructions, Friends come.
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
生時不利，天命災至。制於斧瘢，晝夜苦勤。
Born at an unlucky hour; heaven's fate brings disaster. Governed by the axe's scar, toiling bitterly day and night.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain signals hardship from birth. Born at an inauspicious hour, fate delivers calamity upon calamity. Bound to the chopping block's scars — 'controlled by the axe-wounds' — the speaker toils day and night without respite. The axe-marks suggest penal labor or forced servitude, a life shaped by punishment rather than choice. From Obstruction to Great Possession, fire blazes in heaven — the fullest expression of radiant abundance. The contrast is excruciating: the verse describes someone whose entire existence is defined by constraint and suffering, while the target hexagram promises the greatest prosperity. Great Possession demands suppressing evil and promoting good; here, the subject is ground down by a system that mistakes the good for something to be punished. The fire in heaven illuminates an injustice that the obstructed can only endure.
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