Hexagram 39 · King Wen sequence

Hexagram 39: Obstruction

蹇 · Jian

difficultydetoursupport

The direct route is blocked, so wisdom lies in changing angle rather than pushing harder.

Upper and lower trigrams

Upper: Water坎 · Kan · depth and riskLower: Mountain艮 · Gen · stillness and boundary

Reflection meaning

The direct route is blocked, so wisdom lies in changing angle rather than pushing harder.

Pause, seek competent help, and approach the obstacle from a direction the current resistance does not cover.

If this hexagram appears in a changing reading

Changing lines mark the parts of the six-line figure that move from yin to yang or yang to yin. Those changes generate a second hexagram. Oracle Mirror presents the first hexagram as the current symbolic pattern and the transformed hexagram as a second lens on the direction of change; it does not treat the second figure as a guaranteed future event.

About this page

This page gives an original concise reflection rather than reproducing a modern translation of the classic Judgment or line texts. Serious study benefits from comparing reputable scholarly translations and commentaries because terminology, textual history, and interpretive traditions differ.

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