旅 → 蹇
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 39: Obstruction
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
Line 4
九四 旅于處。得其資斧。我心不快。
Nine in the fourth place means: The wanderer rests in a shelter. He obtains his property and an ax. My heart is not glad.
Line 5
六五 射雉。一矢亡。終以譽命。
Six in the fifth place means: He shoots a pheasant. It drops with the first arrow. In the end this brings both praise and office.
Line 6
上九 鳥焚其巢。旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易。凶。
Nine at the top means: The bird's nest burns up. The wanderer laughs at first, Then must needs lament and weep. Through carelessness he loses his cow. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
金城銕郭，上下同力。政平民親，寇不敢賊。
Bronze walls and iron battlements, solid as a mountain. The garrison patrols through the night without sleep. The people dwell in peace — cooking smoke rises. The four gates stand open, never needing to close.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and below the mountain a city of metal and iron stands impregnable. The original verse — 'Metal walls and iron ramparts, high and low united in strength; governance is just, the people are close, and bandits dare not attack' — presents the ideal defended settlement. The wanderer here is not the one inside the walls but the threat outside: the city's unity of purpose renders it invulnerable. From The Wanderer to Obstruction, water gathers above the mountain, blocking the path forward. Yet the verse transforms obstruction into strength: what appears as a barrier to the enemy is security for the inhabitants. The mountain's water becomes a moat; the difficulty of approach becomes the city's greatest asset.
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