Hexagram 47
Oppression
Lake over Water
The judgment
亨，贞大人吉，无咎，有言不信The lake has run dry and the water sits below it, out of reach. Speech carries no weight in this place, so the move is to keep it short and the footing honest.
The image
The lake is empty and the water keeps running underneath. What is out of reach is still in the system.
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. A line that moves is read here, and read again in the hexagram it becomes.
- 初六Line 1
臀困于株木，入于幽谷，三岁不觌
Stuck at the outset as if seated on a stump, and retreating deeper only leads into a darker place where no one comes for a long while.
- 九二Line 2
困于酒食，朱绂方来，利用亨祀，征凶，无咎
Stuck in the round of food and drink, while the one in red knee-covers arrives from above. That honour serves better in sacrifice than in action; march out now and the road narrows, stay at the altar and nothing is held against you.
Marked in the textominousno blame
- 六三Line 3
困于石，据于蒺蔾，入于其宫，不见其妻，凶
Pressed against hard things front and back, and returning to find the closest place empty, leaving nothing to lean on here.
Marked in the textominous
- 九四Line 4
来荼荼，困于金轝，吝，有终
Help arrives slow and halting, snagged by an obstacle midway; the position is awkward, yet the matter still reaches its end.
Marked in the textnarrow going
- 九五Line 5
劓刖，困于赤绂，乃徐有说，利用祭祀
Nose cut, feet taken, and the red cord pulled tight — pressed from above and below. Only slowly does it loosen; strength spent on sacrifice goes further than strength spent elsewhere.
- 上六Line 6
困于葛藟，于臲卼，曰动悔。有悔，征吉
Tangled and left hanging, so that any move feels like a mistake; admitting the entanglement is what lets movement resume.
Marked in the textregretauspicious
Where each changing line leads
Flip one line and it is a different hexagram. These are the six it becomes.
This page is for reference. To get a hexagram from six throws, cast your own.
The classical text is the Zhouyi, public domain, checked against a Wikisource transcript. The readings are ours. Daily hexagram