蹇 → 咸
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 4).
Line 4
六四 往蹇來連。
Six in the fourth place means: Going leads to obstructions, Coming leads to union.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
日月並居，常暗且微。高山萌顛，丘陵為谿。
Sun and moon dwell together, ever dark and dim. High mountains crumble from their peaks; hills become valleys.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain dims the celestial lights. Sun and moon share the sky yet remain perpetually dark and faint — the luminaries are present but unable to shine. Mountains crumble from their peaks, and hills dissolve into valleys. The cosmic and geographic order simultaneously inverts: light fails in heaven while the earth's contours collapse. This is the Yilin's imagery of total systemic failure, where both the moral compass (sun and moon) and the physical landscape (mountains and valleys) lose their definition. From Obstruction to Influence, the lake gathers above the mountain as mutual receptivity creates attraction. But the verse depicts the opposite: when sun and moon cannot illuminate and mountains cannot stand, no authentic influence can form. Influence requires distinct poles — here, all distinctions have collapsed.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store