小畜 → 蹇
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 39: Obstruction
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).
Line 1
初九 復自道。何其咎。吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Return to the way. How could there be blame in this? Good fortune.
Line 2
九二 牽復。吉。
Nine in the second place means: He allows himself to be drawn into returning. Good fortune.
Line 6
上九 既雨既處。尚德載。婦貞厲。月幾望。君子征凶。
Nine at the top means: The rain comes, there is rest. This is due to the lasting effect of character. Perseverance brings the woman into danger. The moon is nearly full. If the superior man persists, Misfortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
秋花冬萼，數被嚴霜；甲兵當庭，萬物不生；雄犬夜鳴，民擾大驚。
Autumn flowers and winter buds, struck again and again by harsh frost. Armored soldiers fill the courtyard; the myriad things do not grow. The male dog howls at night; the people are troubled and greatly alarmed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven confronts water perched upon the mountain — Obstruction's cold impasse. Autumn flowers and winter buds are ravaged repeatedly by harsh frost. Weapons stand arrayed in the courtyard; nothing grows. A war-dog howls through the night, and the people reel in terror. From Small Taming to Obstruction, the transformation is brutal. Jian's water above the mountain is the image of danger piled upon difficulty — the path forward blocked, the path back treacherous. The verse compounds natural disaster with military threat: frost kills the harvest while armed force occupies the living space. Obstruction demands self-reflection and inner cultivation, but here there is no room even for that. The dog's cry is the voice of a world past counsel.
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