蹇 → 晉
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).
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
避凶東走，反入禍口。制於牙爪，骨為灰土。
Fleeing danger by running east, he enters instead the mouth of disaster. Seized by fangs and claws; bones turned to ash and dust.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain drives a desperate flight. Fleeing disaster eastward, the fugitive runs straight into the jaws of another catastrophe. Seized by fangs and claws, his bones are ground to ash and dust. The verse is a study in lethal irony: the act of escape becomes the instrument of destruction. Every direction is blocked — the mountain's water has flooded all routes, and the one path that seemed open leads to the predator's den. From Obstruction to Progress, fire rises above the earth as light emerges from darkness. Progress promises illumination and advancement, but the verse subverts this utterly: the one who 'advances' eastward meets annihilation. Progress without discernment — rushing toward the light without checking what lurks in the brightness — is simply walking faster into the trap.
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