困 → 坤
Hexagram 47: Oppression → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5).
Line 2
九二 困于酒食。朱紱方來。利用享祀。征凶无咎。
Nine in the second place means: One is oppressed while at meat and drink. The man with the scarlet knee bands is just coming. It furthers one to offer sacrifice. To set forth brings misfortune. No blame.
Line 4
九四 來徐徐。困于金車。吝。有終。
Nine in the fourth place means: He comes very quietly, oppressed in a golden carriage. Humiliation, but the end is reached.
Line 5
九五 劓刖。困于赤紱。乃徐有說。利用祭祀。
Nine in the fifth place means: His nose and feet are cut off. Oppression at the hands of the man with the purple knee bands. Joy comes softly. It furthers one to make offerings and libations.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
六鷁退飛，為襄敗祥。陳師合戰，右股夷傷。遂以薨崩，霸功不終。
Six herons fly in retreat, an ill omen for Duke Xiang. Marshaling troops and joining battle, his right thigh is wounded. Thereupon he perishes; his hegemon's work left unfinished.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake without water signals exhaustion, and six fish-hawks fly backward across the sky. The Zuo Zhuan records that in 642 BC, six yi birds were seen retreating over the Song capital, blown back by an unseen gale, an omen interpreted as portending defeat for Duke Xiang of Song. True to the sign, the duke marched against Chu at the Battle of Hong River, refused to attack while the enemy crossed, was wounded in the right thigh, and died shortly after. His hegemonic ambitions ended unfinished. From Oppression to the Receptive, doubled earth swallows all initiative. The duke's rigid chivalry became passive submission to fate. What began as noble principle collapsed into receptive ground that absorbed his ruin without resistance.
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