姤 → 困
Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
Line 3
九三 臀无膚。其行次且。厲。无大咎。
Nine in the third place means: There is no skin on his thighs, And walking comes hard. If one is mindful of the danger, No great mistake is made.
Line 6
上九 姤其角。吝。无咎。
Nine at the top means: He comes to meet with his horns. Humiliation. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
進仕為官，不若復田，獲壽保年。
Advancing to serve as an official is not as good as returning to the fields; thereby one gains long life and preserves one's years.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath heaven whispers a quiet counsel: retire. Entering public service and becoming an official is not as good as returning to farm the land, thereby preserving one's years and securing longevity. The verse is a miniature Daoist manifesto — the encounter with political life is weighed against agrarian simplicity, and simplicity wins. The contrast between officialdom's dangers and farming's safety echoes a persistent theme in Chinese thought from Laozi to Tao Yuanming. From Coming to Meet to Oppression, the lake has lost its water: ambition drained dry, one finds that the well of bureaucratic life offers nothing to drink. Better to withdraw and tend one's own soil.
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