困
GUA 47 · KUN
EXHAUSTION
Overall Image (大象)
A lake without water
Exhaustion
The noble young one, accordingly,
invokes a higher purpose to carry out intentions▼
Overall Image (大象)
A lake without water
Exhaustion
The noble young one, accordingly,
invokes a higher purpose to carry out intentions
The lake drains into the deep, the tide goes out, the living powers ebb. There is little left to enjoy but smelly fish and slimy mud and those slippery and thorny personal truths, biting each other and making those sucking sounds. Joy is in serious trouble and gratitude seems to be too hard to find. Even the wise ones can suffer these ebbs. The exhausted sage is reminded that, to follow his will so completely, he risks both his life and his sanity. He wants to rejoice but is empty. One dream or one drive is all he has juice for. But where he finds his resources discharged, he may yet reach for resources not his own. And when caught in quicksand or mud, floating is best.
Main Judgment (Exhaustion) (卦辞)
“Fulfillment”
“Persistence”
For the mature human being, a promise,
Not a mistake
But having the words is not the conviction▼
Main Judgment (Exhaustion) (卦辞)
“Fulfillment”
“Persistence”
For the mature human being, a promise,
Not a mistake
But having the words is not the conviction
It seems only human to drape our stranger mysteries in gothic and romantic veils, but the foolish and the fatigued will invest the witch moon with too much mystique. When the tides go out or power recedes, once happy people moan about falseness and vanishing meaning, denying their lives with their words or bewailing that all the world is null and refuted. Things from these dark, pre-verbal depths are given new voices, even dark fears about one’s own light. The power to rule them goes out with the tide. The sage, not unknown in this world, is exhausted in times of exhaustion, but he feels no bitterness, makes no speeches and speaks no promises that he hasn’t the power to keep. He learns how to call upon primeval powers to float himself up and out of this muck. The greater part of this burden is just simple self-indulgence. Ill-will, resentment, rancor and enmity will all try to look like truth, though the truths needed now are things that will lift against gravity, and lots more fresh, clean water. Nothing is solid here, there is no core of firmness to speak to or from. Words keep changing their meanings. But at least the water pools first in the deeper depressions.
Key Words (关键词)
Surrounded, afflicted, beset, distressed, trapped, oppressed, cramped, hemmed in▼
Key Words (关键词)
Surrounded, afflicted, beset, distressed, trapped, oppressed, cramped, hemmed in
Hard pressed, squeezed; feeling defeated; running on reserves, vapors and fumes Victimized, bothered, disheartened, wretched, depleted, fatigued, weary, used up Lowest ebbs, dregs, being drained, spent; futility, pessimism, nihilism, suffering Depression; using the last ounce, getting the spirit back, lightening up, enduring Melancholy, delirium, illusion, despond, swamp gas visions, wits end, emptiness
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Gen-Dui Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Twelfth House, Mutable Water, Pisces
element:Water
Tarot
card:The Moon
suit:Trump
Qabalah
note:Qoph; Path between Yesod and Netzach (Trad: Mk-Nt)
The Lines
11st • YangWith bottom belabored by a wooden cane
Going into the valley of gloom
For three years not seen face to face▼
1
1st • YangWith bottom belabored by a wooden cane
Going into the valley of gloom
For three years not seen face to face
47.1x Going into the valley of gloom:
The gloom has no vision
He gets himself spanked. He gets his butt whipped. This has really only hurt him the first time, the time that it actually happened. But now he plays the scene over and over again in his mind and the sentiment turns to resentment. The negative feedback loops him back onto himself, beginning a cycle of darkened mood that could last for the next three years. Such feelings do not know time, other than always and never. This valley of gloom is one deep depression, one truly great rut, surrounded on all three sides by high, insurmountable walls. As long as his attention is here, his back will be turned to the water’s way out of the valley. Maybe he just wants to be beaten, or to be a beaten down soul. Maybe he secretly thinks that he deserves this, over and over again. How hard can turning around be? It is three years of this kind of effort.
22nd • YangOppressed before wine and food
Scarlet-sashed nobles arrive with direction
Worthwhile and productive to offer up a sacrifice
Initiative seems foreboding
But this avoids mistakes▼
2
2nd • YangOppressed before wine and food
Scarlet-sashed nobles arrive with direction
Worthwhile and productive to offer up a sacrifice
Initiative seems foreboding
But this avoids mistakes
47.2x Oppressed before wine (and) food:
Balance will have (its) rewards
He slouches at the feast, surrounded by good meat and drink, poking at his food. The nobles rush in on a mission, looking for help, offering great rewards for small favors, but the weary one lets them pass by unheeded. Maybe the wealth and good fortune would mess up his life. This may have been the answer he wasn’t seeking, the chance to get himself snagged on something that was in motion, but the way out comes and then goes, and it’s likely that they will only bother him once. The thing with the food set before him is that it’s fuel. If he only could work up an appetite and sacrifice some of this stuff to his higher purpose. Or maybe he could sacrifice some of his losses and poor expectations. Jaded and sated mean having too much. How does he now have so little? Maybe starving himself is his way to grow hungry.
3 • YangOppressed by stones
Grasping at thorny brambles
Going into his house
But not seeing his wife
Unfortunate▼
3
• YangOppressed by stones
Grasping at thorny brambles
Going into his house
But not seeing his wife
Unfortunate
47.3x Grasping at thorny brambles:
Relying on the firm
* Going into his house
But not seeing his wife:
Not a happy omen
Does it give him that special feeling to have the world turn against him? His dark dispirit paints frowns on the stones. He fancies them cold to the touch and uncaring, weighing him down, rumbling and grinding and coming to crush and oppress him. He goes to great lengths to prove they will not support him. Hard-pressed between walls closing in, he denies himself even a handhold. Girding his loins with thistles, crowning himself with thorns, he will not need to look far for a cause to complain. Why not a hair shirt as well? At some time not so long ago, he even had a good wife, who waited for him to come home. Maybe she just grew tired and left, maybe she is just hiding until this phase of his passes. He may even consult us again, until he gets some even worse news, or until he can misrepresent something a little more cheerful.
44th • YangApproaching slowly and gravely
Oppressed inside a gilded chariot
But this embarrassment will find an outcome▼
4
4th • YangApproaching slowly and gravely
Oppressed inside a gilded chariot
But this embarrassment will find an outcome
47.4x Approaching slowly (and) gravely:
The purpose remains subordinate
* Although less than properly positioned
There will be support
It exhausts him to handle his fine, gilded chariot. Perhaps he even feels as though he pulls the thing himself, still with the brakes on, of course, and yet all that he really needs to do is think a little and steer. If this lack of abundant energy were really the problem he wants it to seem, he could find a less transparent ruse. The slow-motion effort is far more exhausting than a far more exuberant pace, and this could take him four times as long just thinking and steering too much. He would even save energy if he just got out and crawled. Many responsible things remain to be done, so many plans that might fail. If he only had fewer friends he could count on. An end will be attained, but at embarrassing speed, with costs in horses and brakes. Good thing his horses don’t bite. Do we even ask him why? What is he afraid of, or guilty about?
55th • YangNose cut off, feet cut off
Oppressed by rouge-sashed ministers
And then gradually finding relief
Worthwhile and productive to sacrifice this sacrifice▼
5
5th • YangNose cut off, feet cut off
Oppressed by rouge-sashed ministers
And then gradually finding relief
Worthwhile and productive to sacrifice this sacrifice
47.5x Nose cut off, feet cut off:
The purpose is still not gained
* And then gradually finding relief:
Due to the center’s (being) straightforward
* Worthwhile (and) productive to sacrifice (this) sacrifice: To suffer happiness He is humbled by his own high position and tired out by his duties. His ministers do their best: they haunt his nights and oppress his days. They bathe him in tepid water and dress him up in special uniforms. They force him to walk to the altar and make his libations and offerings. What more could he sacrifice for them? They’ve even taken his nose and his feet. What is a poor sovereign to do here? What a fate for a great potentate! All the ministers get for their efforts is purple in their knees. But they always bow with such menace. This way is not working out well. Things are too circumscribed. Maybe he thinks he gives up too much for his people - but really he might just be thinking too much. Maybe he could give up these thoughts about sacrifice. The tepid baths could go too: maybe a deep tub with plenty of ice.
6Top • YangOppressed by creepers and vines
Proceeding unsteadily and awkwardly
Uttering “movement is regret”
To own the regrets and go boldly forward is promising▼
6
Top • YangOppressed by creepers and vines
Proceeding unsteadily and awkwardly
Uttering “movement is regret”
To own the regrets and go boldly forward is promising
47.6x Oppressed by creeping vines:
A less than proper response
* (If) movement (is) regret, have the regrets:
A promising move
Haunted and oppressed by mist and creeping vines, spooked and all tangled up in the futility of it all, it seems he tried to live and learn, but may have learned it wrong. Although one may be expected to regret actions past, it seems pretty silly to begin by regretting the future. It is also expected that dreams and fantasies fail. But these can fail and flop in the mind and end there and not make a mess in the world. That is what much of the brain is made for. Ghosts belong in the past. When they come at us from the future, something is turned around. Regret and remorse are supposed to only look backwards. Anxiety gropes for ways to account for their presence, like bad dreams make up monsters and demons. Paralysis will not get him out of this trouble. When the sorcerer gets hold of such things he has them spy or run errands.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 47 begins on Page 342-350.
Help improve this resource
Spot a typo or have a suggestion? We'd love to hear from you.