蹇
jiǎn

39. Obstruction

䷦
Above
坎 kǎn
The Abysmal, Water
Below
艮 gèn
Keeping Still, Mountain

The hexa­gram pic­tures a dan­ger­ous abyss lying be­fore us and a steep, in­ac­ces­si­ble moun­tain ris­ing be­hind us. We are sur­round­ed by ob­sta­cles; at the same time, since the moun­tain has the at­tribute of keep­ing still, there is im­plic­it a hint as to how we can ex­tri­cate our­selves. The hexa­gram rep­re­sents ob­struc­tions that ap­pear in the course of time but that can and should be over­come. There­fore all the in­struc­tion given is di­rect­ed to over­com­ing them.

The Judgement

Obstruction. The southwest furthers.
The northeast does not further.
It furthers one to see the great man.
Perseverance brings good fortune.

The south­west is the re­gion of re­treat, the north­east that of ad­vance. Here an in­di­vid­ual is con­front­ed by ob­sta­cles that can­not be over­come di­rect­ly. In such a sit­u­a­tion it is wise to pause in view of the dan­ger and to re­treat. How­ev­er, this is mere­ly a prepa­ra­tion for over­com­ing the ob­struc­tions. One must join forces with friends of like mind and put him­self under the lead­er­ship of a man equal to the sit­u­a­tion: then one will suc­ceed in re­mov­ing the ob­sta­cles. This re­quires the will to per­se­vere just when one ap­par­ent­ly must do some­thing that leads away from his goal. This unswerv­ing inner pur­pose brings good for­tune in the end. An ob­struc­tion that lasts only for a time is use­ful for self-de­vel­op­ment. This is the value of ad­ver­si­ty.

The Image

Water on the mountain:
The image of obstruction.
Thus the superior man turns his attention to himself
And molds his character.

Dif­fi­cul­ties and ob­struc­tions throw a man back upon him­self. While the in­fe­ri­or man seeks to put the blame on other per­sons, be­wail­ing his fate, the su­pe­ri­or man seeks the error with­in him­self, and through this in­tro­spec­tion the ex­ter­nal ob­sta­cle be­comes for him an oc­ca­sion for inner en­rich­ment and ed­u­ca­tion.

The Lines

Six at the beginning means:
Going leads to obstructions,
Coming meets with praise.

When one en­coun­ters an ob­struc­tion, the im­por­tant thing is to re­flect on how best to deal with it. When threat­ened with dan­ger, one should not strive blind­ly to go ahead, for this only leads to com­pli­ca­tions. The cor­rect thing is, on the con­trary, to re­treat for the time being, not in order to give up the strug­gle but to await the right mo­ment for ac­tion.

Six in the second place means:
The king’s servant is beset by obstruction upon
obstruction,
But it is not his own fault.

Or­di­nar­i­ly it is best to go around an ob­sta­cle and try to over­come it along the line of least re­sis­tance. But there is one in­stance in which a man must go out to meet the trou­ble, even though dif­fi­cul­ty piles upon dif­fi­cul­ty: this is when the p’ath of duty leads di­rect­ly to it—in other words, when he can­not act of his own vo­li­tion but is duty bound to go and seek out dan­ger in the ser­vice of a high­er cause. Then he may do it with­out com­punc­tion, be­cause it is not through any fault of his that he is putting him­self in this dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion.

Nine in the third place means:
Going leads to obstructions $
Hence he comes back.

While the pre­ced­ing line shows the of­fi­cial com­pelled by duty to fol­low the way of dan­ger, this line shows the man who must act as fa­ther of a fam­i­ly or as head of his kin. If he were to plunge reck­less­ly into dan­ger, it would be a use­less act, be­cause those en­trust­ed to his care can­not get along by them­selves. But if he with­draws and turns back to his own, they wel­come him with great joy.

Six in the fourth place means:
Going leads to obstructions,
Coming leads to union.

This too de­scribes a sit­u­a­tion that can­not be man­aged sin­gle- hand­ed. In such a case the di­rect way is not the short­est. If a per­son were to forge ahead on his own strength and with­out the nec­es­sary prepa­ra­tions, he would not find the sup­port he needs and would re­al­ize too late that he has been mis­tak­en in his cal­cu­la­tions, inas­much as the con­di­tions on which he hoped he could rely would prove to be in­ad­e­quate. In this case it is bet­ter, there­fore, to hold back for the time being and to gath­er to­geth­er trust­wor­thy com­pan­ions who can be count­ed upon for help in over­com­ing the ob­struc­tions.

Nine in the fifth place means:
In the midst of the greatest obstructions,
Friends come.

Here we see a man who is called to help in an emer­gency. He should not seek to evade the ob­struc­tions, no mat­ter how dan­ger­ous­ly they pile up be­fore him. But be­cause he is re­al­ly called to the task, the power of his spir­it is strong enough to at­tract helpers whom he can ef­fec­tive­ly or­ga­nize, so that through the well-di­rect­ed co-op­er­a­tion of all par­tic­i­pants the ob­struc­tion is over­come.

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Six at the'top means:
Going leads to obstructions,
Coming leads to great good fortune.
It furthers one to see the great man.

This refers to a man who has al­ready left the world and its tu­mult be­hind him. When the time of ob­struc­tions ar­rives, it might seem that the sim­plest thing for him to do would be to turn his back upon the world and take refuge in the be­yond. But this road is barred to him. He must not seek his own sal­va­tion and aban­don the world to its ad­ver­si­ty. Duty calls him back once more into the turm­bil of life. Pre­cise­ly be­cause of his ex­pe­ri­ence and inner free­dom, he is able to cre­ate some­thing both great and com­plete that brings good for­tune. And it is fa­vor­able to see the great man in al­liance with whom one can achieve the work of res­cue.