蹇 → 師
Hexagram 39: Obstruction → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
褰衣涉河，水深漬罷。賴幸舟子，濟脫无他。
Lifting his robes to ford the river, the water is deep and the crossing exhausting. Fortunate to find a boatman; he is ferried across without mishap.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water pours down the mountain as a traveler lifts his robes to ford a river, only to find the water chest-deep and the current overwhelming. Exhausted and soaked, he would have drowned — but a boatman appears and ferries him across. He emerges on the far bank unharmed. The verse captures the essence of Obstruction's promise: the path is genuinely dangerous, not merely inconvenient, yet help arrives when the traveler commits to crossing. From Obstruction to The Army, earth contains water in disciplined reserve. The boatman embodies the Army's principle: organized capability deployed at the critical moment. The rescue is not luck but readiness — someone who understood the river was already stationed there. Discipline anticipates danger before the traveler even arrives.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store