困 → 夬
Hexagram 47: Oppression → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
作凶作患，北檄困貧。東與禍連，傷我老根。
Bringing calamity and disaster, northern dispatches spell poverty and hardship. In the east, misfortune spreads; it wounds our elder root.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake without water: violence and calamity erupt. Urgent dispatches from the north bring poverty and distress. In the east, disaster spreads, wounding the ancient foundations. The verse paints a two-front crisis: hostile forces from the north compound with contagious misfortune from the east, together damaging what has been built over generations. The 'old root' signifies ancestral heritage or long-established institutions now under assault. From Oppression to Breakthrough, the lake rises above heaven, and the gentleman distributes blessings downward while guarding against complacency. Breakthrough demands decisive removal of what is harmful, but the verse shows the situation before that resolution: oppression metastasizing across borders, the root system under siege from multiple directions at once.
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