蹇 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 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 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 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
火起上門，不為我殘。跳脫東西，獨得生完。不利出鄰，病疾憂患。
The beam breaks, the house collapses — but the person is unharmed. Tiles and bricks fallen everywhere, standing in an empty lot. Looking back after the ordeal, cold all over — not daring to take a step for fear of hidden pits.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain brings peril, and this verse (a rewrite) must be read through the original: 'Fire breaks out at the front gate, yet it does not consume me. Leaping east and west, I alone survive whole. But it is not good to venture past the threshold — sickness and suffering follow.' The original captures a narrow escape from fire: the speaker dodges the flames and survives intact, but remains terrified and unable to step outside, knowing that illness lurks beyond the door. From Obstruction to Biting Through, thunder and lightning combine as the state enforces law with clarity. The survivor's paralysis inverts Biting Through's decisive action — where the hexagram demands cutting through obstacles, the traumatized speaker cannot bring himself to move forward, trapped between the fire behind and the danger ahead.
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