蹇 → 剝

Commentary

Water on the mountain blocks every way forward, and this verse (a rewrite) must be read through the original: 'An old wolf and a white donkey, a long-tailed great fox — stumbling forward and tripping backward, advancing or retreating, they encounter only demons.' The original piles up images of crippled, ungainly beasts staggering along a road haunted by malevolent spirits. Every creature is damaged — the wolf old, the donkey white-haired, the fox ungainly — and every direction cursed. From Obstruction to Splitting Apart, the mountain sits upon bare earth, its base eroding from below. Splitting Apart is the final stage of disintegration: what the obstructed path promised, the crumbling mountain delivers. There is no cunning escape here, only the honest recognition that every support has given way and the only option is to wait for the cycle to reach its nadir before renewal becomes possible.