萃 → 困

Commentary

Lake upon earth transforms into the lake drained of water, the exhaustion of Oppression. Nine li of road cross ten mountains; the path is impossibly steep. Oxen and horses refuse to advance; one turns back and returns. The verse is a study in geographical defeat: the density of mountains, ten crammed into a nine-li stretch, creates a landscape that defeats even draft animals. Neither persistence nor brute strength can overcome terrain this hostile. From Gathering to Oppression, the transformation drains the gathering of all vitality. The lake that sat upon the earth now sits without water, its basin exposed. What was abundant becomes empty, and the gathered community, like the exhausted animals, can only retreat from what cannot be crossed.