蹇 → 蠱
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
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 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
六鷁退飛，為衰敗祥。陳師合戰，左股夷傷。遂崩不起，霸功不成。
Six cormorants fly backward, an omen of decline and defeat. Marshaling troops and joining battle, the left thigh is wounded. He collapses and does not rise; the hegemon's work is left undone.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain portends a military catastrophe. Six cormorants fly backward over Song — a famous omen from the Spring and Autumn Annals (Duke Xi, Year 16, 644 BC) presaging decline and defeat. Troops are marshaled for battle, but the left flank is wounded and the commander falls, never to rise again. Hegemonic ambitions collapse with him. The backward-flying birds are a cosmic signal of reversal: what should advance retreats, and the natural order inverts. From Obstruction to Work on the Decayed, wind stirs beneath the mountain, exposing what has rotted within. The military defeat is not sudden misfortune but the surfacing of accumulated decay. The six cormorants announced what was already true — the state's strength was hollow, and the battle merely revealed the corruption that the mountain had concealed.
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