困 → 井
Hexagram 47: Oppression → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 4).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
桀亂无道，民散不聚。背室棄家，君孤出走。
Jie rules in chaos, devoid of the Way; the people scatter and will not gather. They abandon hearth and home; the lord is left alone to flee.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake without water, and King Jie of Xia rules in chaos without the Way. The people scatter and will not gather. They abandon their homes and flee, and the ruler stands alone as his kingdom empties. Jie, the last tyrant of the Xia dynasty, squandered the Mandate of Heaven through debauchery and cruelty until his subjects simply walked away. From Oppression to the Well, water rises above wood, and the gentleman labors among the people and encourages mutual aid. The Well offers what Jie refused to provide: a fixed, communal resource that nourishes regardless of who draws from it. The well cannot be moved, and unlike the tyrant's palace, it belongs to everyone. Jie's oppression drove people away; the well draws them home.
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