困 → 節
Hexagram 47: Oppression → Hexagram 60: Limitation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 4).
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 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
秋隼冬翔，數被嚴霜。甲兵充庭，萬物不生。雄父夜鳴，民大擾驚。
The autumn hawk soars through winter skies, battered by bitter frost. Arms and armor fill the courtyard; the ten thousand things cease to grow. The cock crows in the night; the people are greatly startled and alarmed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake without water: the autumn falcon flies through winter, repeatedly beaten by harsh frost. Weapons and soldiers fill the courtyard, and nothing grows. The cock crows at night, and the people are greatly disturbed and frightened. The verse layers militarism with cosmic disorder: the falcon hunting out of season, frost destroying life, arms replacing agriculture, the rooster crowing at the wrong hour. Each detail signals the natural order violated. The cock crowing at night specifically evokes the 'hen crowing at dawn' omen of governance inverted. From Oppression to Limitation, water above the lake, the gentleman establishes proper measures and deliberates on conduct. Limitation should impose needed restraint, but this verse shows a world where every natural limit has already been breached, and the only 'limitation' left is death.
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