蹇 → 蒙
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 王臣蹇蹇。匪躬之故。
Six in the second place means: The King's servant is beset by obstruction upon obstruction, But it is not his own fault.
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.
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
疾風塵起，亂擾崩始。強大并小，先否後喜。
A fierce wind rises with dust; turmoil and collapse begin. The strong swallow the small; first hardship, then joy.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain meets a violent gale that raises choking dust, and the scene dissolves into upheaval. The strong swallow the small in a whirlwind of consolidation — yet the verse ends with a reversal: what begins in negation concludes in joy. The dust storm is not mere destruction but the turbulence that precedes a new settlement. From Obstruction to Youthful Folly, the mountain shifts from blocking water above to sheltering a spring below. The spring at the mountain's base is naive but pure; it emerges only after the storm has blown the old dust away. The pattern traces adversity's pedagogy: obstruction breeds confusion, confusion invites absorption by stronger forces, and through that painful merger, something fresh and uncontaminated is born.
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