蹇 → 坤
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
九三 往蹇來反。
Nine in the third place means: Going leads to obstructions; Hence he comes back.
Line 5
九五 大蹇朋來。
Nine in the fifth place means: In the midst of the greatest obstructions, Friends come.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
兔聚東郭，眾犬俱獵。圍缺不成，无所能獲。
Rabbits gather at the eastern wall; many dogs hunt together. The encirclement breaks and fails; nothing at all is caught.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water gathers on the mountain while below, a hunt dissolves into futility. Rabbits cluster at the Eastern Wall, and a pack of dogs sets out in pursuit. Yet the encirclement has gaps — the ring never closes — and no catch is made. The image is of coordinated effort that falls apart through poor execution: the prey is there, the hunters are ready, but the formation is broken. From Obstruction to The Receptive, the mountain's resistance gives way to earth's boundless passivity. The Receptive's power lies in yielding completeness, but here the yielding is premature — the net opens before it should, and the quarry slips through. When obstruction transforms into pure receptivity without structure, effort dissipates into the open field. The lesson: even the most willing pursuit fails when the encirclement lacks discipline.
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