蹇 → 困
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4).
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 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
既往不說，憂來禍結。北戶為患，无所申雪。
What is past cannot be spoken of; worries come and disasters knot together. The northern door brings calamity; there is nowhere to find redress.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water on the mountain compounds into deeper entrapment. What is past cannot be spoken of — the time for explanation has expired. Worry arrives and disaster crystallizes. The northern door becomes a source of affliction, and there is nowhere to find redress or vindication. The verse captures the condition of accumulated injustice: wrongs piled upon wrongs with no court of appeal. The 'northern door' traditionally signifies the back entrance, the servant's passage, the way through which trouble enters unseen. From Obstruction to Oppression, the lake has no water — its very medium of life is gone. Oppression is obstruction perfected into depletion: not merely a blocked path but an empty well. The transformation strips away even the water that defined Obstruction, leaving only the dry basin of unrelieved suffering.
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