The I Ching: A Beginner's Guide to the 64 Hexagrams by Gavin - HTML preview
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Lake over Water
Hexagram 47 shows genuine strength hemmed in by real limits: the way through is inner integrity that neither denies the connement nor collapses under it.
THE JUDGMENT
困：亨，贞，⼤⼈吉，⽆咎，有⾔不信。
Adversity: success remains possible. Staying true matters. A person of substance meets it with good fortune and no blame. Words offered now will not be believed.
THE IMAGE
泽⽆⽔，困；君⼦以致命遂志。
The lake stands over water yet holds none: Adversity. The wise person, even at the furthest edge of what circumstance allows, holds a course and carries the intention through.
WHAT THIS HEXAGRAM MEANS
In the received sequence, Hexagram 47 follows Ascending: a rise that continues without pause eventually spends its own resources and arrives at connement. That is the classical logic for why Kun comes next — momentum that never rests runs out of ground to climb.
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The Chinese name 困 shows a tree boxed inside an enclosure, growth pressed in on every side until it can no longer spread. English editions also translate the gure as Oppression or Exhaustion — this site's own URL reads /47-oppression for the same reason — because the felt experience is being squeezed by circumstance rather than beaten by a single opponent. Some editions favor Adversity to keep the emphasis on inner response rather than outer cause.
Wang Fuzhi's commentary draws a sharp line inside the gure: of the three rm lines caught in Kun, each still nds an occasion, an ending, or a release, while the three yielding lines that try to close the trap end up catching only themselves. Circumstances can genuinely box you in, but a person who tries to box in someone else through manipulation or spite usually nds the connement closes around their own position rst.
THE FIGURE
Hexagram 47 joins two trigrams as Lake over Water: Dui, the Lake, rests above; Kan, Water, lies below. Water that should ll the basin has drained beneath it instead, leaving the upper hollow dry while the lower deep keeps owing out of reach. It is a picture of resources present nearby yet unavailable exactly where you stand.
In the six-line diagram, read from the bottom, a yielding line opens the base, a rm line rises to the second position, a yielding line returns at the third, two rm lines hold the fourth and fth, and a yielding line closes the top. The three rm lines sit at two, four, and ve, genuinely pressured but never isolated, while the three yielding lines bracket them at the base, the middle, and the summit — precisely where the classical reading locates the deepest trouble: not in the rm lines that endure it, but in the positions straining to close around them.
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Read a line only if it came out moving (a 6 or a 9 in the coin method).
1
Hiding in the shadow BOTTOM LINE
初六：臀困于株⽊，⼊于幽⾕，三岁不觌。
Sitting cramped on a bare stump, retreating into a hidden valley: unseen for three years.
The rst line pictures someone perched uncomfortably on a bare stump, then withdrawing into a hidden valley where no one sees them for three years. This is connement chosen rather than imposed: avoidance dressed up as caution.
Before treating a limit as absolute, ask whether you have actually tested it or simply retreated from the discomfort of trying. Sitting it out has a cost measured in years, not days. When this line changes, the reading opens into Hexagram 58
— Lake, where open, glad exchange replaces the hidden valley, suggesting that honest engagement, not further withdrawal, is what actually loosens this particular knot.
264
Trapped by comfort's offer SECOND LINE
九⼆：困于酒⾷，朱绂⽅来，利⽤亨祀，征凶，⽆咎。
Hemmed in by wine and food, while a scarlet sash of rank is being offered: favorable to hold to ceremony and sincerity; advancing brings misfortune, yet no lasting blame.
At the second line, the connement arrives disguised as plenty: wine, food, and a scarlet sash of rank are being offered, and accepting them quietly narrows your position even as it feels like relief. The advice is to meet the offer with the same care one would bring to sacrice and ceremony — respectful, deliberate, not swept along by gratitude or attery. Pushing forward aggressively while under this kind of obligation brings misfortune, though no lasting blame follows a measured response. The change leads to Hexagram 45 — Convergence: real support does exist nearby, but it is found in honest gathering, not in the comfortable trap.
3
Pressed against stone THIRD LINE
六三：困于⽯，据于蒺藜，⼊于其宫，不见其妻，凶。
Pressed against stone, then leaning on brambles for support; entering one's own house and nding the spouse gone: misfortune.
The third line shows someone straining against something as unyielding as stone, then grasping brambles for support and only wounding themselves further. Exhausted, they return home and nd the spouse gone — a stark image of effort spent on the wrong obstacle while something that actually needed tending was left unattended. This line warns against forcing a confrontation you cannot win while neglecting the relationship or foundation that could have held you steady. The change points to Hexagram 28 — Great Exceeding, where the load already exceeds what the structure beneath it can bear; the answer is to lighten the burden, not press harder against the stone.
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Slow approach to the block FOURTH LINE
九四：来徐徐，困于⾦车，吝，有终。
Approaching slowly, held back by a bronze carriage; difficulty now, yet the matter reaches a good end.
The fourth line describes someone approaching slowly, held back by something as heavy and legitimate as a bronze carriage. There is real difficulty here, not imagined resistance, and rushing it will not make it move faster. The counsel is patient, deliberate pacing: keep coming, without forcing the pace past what the obstruction allows. Held to steadily, the line promises the matter reaches a good end despite the present difficulty. When this line changes, the reading becomes Hexagram 29 — Water, doubled danger that must be met the same way water meets a slope: by nding the course that is actually open, not the one you wish were open.
5
Wounded yet freed by sincerity FIFTH LINE
九五：劓刖，困于⾚绂，乃徐有说，利⽤祭祀。
Wounded and cut off, hemmed in even while wearing the scarlet sash of high office; relief comes gradually — favorable to hold to devotion and ceremony.
The fth line is striking: even someone wearing the scarlet sash of high office is wounded and hemmed in here, proof that rank alone does not exempt anyone from adversity. Relief is described as coming gradually, through devotion and ceremony rather than through force or complaint. This is the position of someone centrally placed and genuinely capable, who must still wait for connement to loosen on its own timeline while holding to sincere conduct. The change leads to Hexagram 40 — Release: the pressure described across this whole gure is -
nally breaking apart, and what eases it is the same patient sincerity this line asks for.
266
Tangled vines, timely move TOP LINE
上六：困于葛藟，于臲卼，⽈动悔，有悔，征吉。
Tangled in kudzu vines, standing on unsteady ground: to move is regret-ted, yet regret is already present — moving forward now brings good fortune.
The top line pictures someone caught in kudzu vines on unsteady, high ground
— every movement seems to risk more tangling, more regret. Yet the line's own logic turns this around: regret is already present simply from being stuck, so naming it honestly and then moving is better than staying still out of fear of making things worse. Once the regret is acknowledged rather than avoided, moving forward brings good fortune. The change leads to Hexagram 6 —
Dispute, a reminder that the coming release may involve friction or disagreement, and that honest confrontation, entered at the right moment, is not the same danger as the tangle you are leaving.
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Village Well
井 · Jǐng