巽 → 蹇
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 39: Obstruction
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
Line 2
九二 巽在牀下。用史巫。紛若。吉。无咎。
Nine in the second place means: Penetration under the bed. Priests and magicians are used in great number. Good fortune. No blame.
Line 6
上九 巽在牀下。喪其資斧。貞凶。
Nine at the top means: Penetration under the bed. He loses his property and his ax. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
磝磝禿白，不生黍稷。无以供祭，祇靈乏祀。
Rocky and bare, bald and white; no millet or grain will grow. Nothing to offer in sacrifice; the spirits lack their rites.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into water over mountain: the Gentle becomes Obstruction. Rocky and white with barrenness, no millet or grain can grow. There is nothing to offer in sacrifice; the spirits and ancestors go without rites. The verse describes land so stony and depleted that it cannot sustain even the most basic crop. Without grain, ritual sacrifice is impossible — the connection between the living and the ancestral world is severed at its material root. From The Gentle to Obstruction, water pools atop the mountain with nowhere to flow, and the gentleman turns inward to cultivate virtue. But here the obstruction is total: the soil itself refuses to yield. Wind blows over stone without effect. When the very earth is barren, no amount of gentle influence can coax life from rock.
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