巽 → 困
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 6).
Line 3
九三 頻巽吝。
Nine in the third place means: Repeated penetration. Humiliation.
Line 4
六四 悔亡。田獲三品。
Six in the fourth place means: Remorse vanishes. During the hunt Three kinds of game are caught.
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
坤厚地德，庶物蕃息。平康正直，以綏大福。
Fertile fields stretch without limit; cattle and sheep fatten on their own. The farmer leans on his hoe, smiling at the distant mountains.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into lake over water: the Gentle becomes Oppression. The original verse reads: 'Kun's thick earth-virtue nourishes the myriad creatures to flourish. Peaceful, upright, and straight — thereby comes great blessing.' The verse invokes Kun (Earth) as the mother of abundance: generous soil sustaining all living things, moral rectitude as the root of prosperity. Yet this enters Oppression, where the lake's water has drained away. From The Gentle to Oppression, the irony is deliberate. Earth's bounty is real, but Oppression strips it away: resources exist yet cannot be accessed, virtue is present yet cannot be expressed. The blessing described is genuine — the question Oppression asks is whether the recipient can endure the time when that blessing is withheld.
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