既濟 → 蹇
Hexagram 63: After Completion → Hexagram 39: Obstruction
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).
Line 1
初九 曳其輪。濡其尾。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: He breaks his wheels. He gets his tail in the water. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
茹芝餌黃，飲酒玉英。與神流通，長无憂凶。
Eating lingzhi, ingesting yellow essence, drinking jade-flower wine. Communing with the spirits in flowing union, forever free from sorrow and misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water sits above fire, and one ingests lingzhi mushrooms and yellow essence, drinking the jade-flower elixir of wine. Communing with the spirits, one lives forever free from worry or misfortune. The verse describes Daoist longevity practices: consuming sacred fungi, mineral elixirs, and spirit-infused liquors to achieve transcendence. From After Completion to Obstruction, fire-and-water balance transforms into water pooling atop the mountain — danger above, stillness below. Obstruction's water-over-mountain creates an impassable barrier for ordinary travel. Yet the verse reframes this obstacle as a sacred boundary: the practitioner who cultivates immortality does not need to cross the mountain because he has already transcended the world that lies beyond it. The obstruction protects rather than confines.
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