升 → 困
Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5).
Line 3
九三 升虛邑。
Nine in the third place means: One pushes upward into an empty city.
Line 4
六四 王用亨于岐山。吉。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: The king offers him Mount Ch'i. Good fortune. No blame.
Line 5
六五 貞吉升階。
Six in the fifth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. One pushes upward by steps.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
民迷失道，亂我統紀。空使乾革，賓无所有。
The people are lost and stray from the way; our order and discipline are thrown into chaos. Vainly causing upheaval and change, the realm is left with nothing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wood grows within the earth, but the people have lost their way and the governing order falls into thorough confusion. Hasty reforms exhaust the treasury to no effect, and the guests — those who should benefit from governance — are left with nothing at all. Lake drained of water, the image of Oppression, shows a vessel that has lost the substance it was meant to contain. From Pushing Upward to Oppression, the ascending impulse enters a landscape of depleted resources and broken legitimacy. The people wander because leadership has failed; reforms are attempted but yield nothing because the wellspring of authority has run dry. The wood pushes upward through earth that can no longer nourish it — growth without sustenance, effort without any return.
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