困 → 大壯
Hexagram 47: Oppression → Hexagram 34: Great Power
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5).
Line 1
初六 臀困于株木。入于幽谷。三歲不覿。
Six at the beginning means: One sits oppressed under a bare tree And strays into a gloomy valley. For three years one sees nothing.
Line 3
六三 困于石。據于蒺蔾。入于其宮。不見其妻。凶。
Six in the third place means: A man permits himself to be oppressed by stone, And leans on thorns and thistles. He enters the house and does not see his wife. Misfortune.
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
緣山升木，中墮於谷。子輿失勞，黃鳥哀作。
Scaling the mountain, climbing the tree, halfway up one falls into the valley. The carriage overturns, the labor lost; the golden oriole sings its sorrow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake without water: someone climbs the mountain and ascends a tree, then falls midway into the valley. Zi Yu loses his laborious effort, and the yellow bird sings its mournful song. Zi Yu is a style-name for Mencius (Mengzi), and the imagery resonates with the Shijing's 'Huang Niao' ode from the Xiao Ya, an exile's lament about being a stranger in hostile lands: 'Yellow birds, do not gather in my mulberry.' The climber who falls captures ambition exceeded by circumstance. From Oppression to Great Power, thunder rides above heaven in a display of tremendous force. Yet the verse warns that raw power misapplied results only in a harder fall. The gentleman refrains from treading where propriety forbids, lest great strength become great ruin.
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