I Ching Kun (Oppression) Meaning: Hexagram 47

Draw Kun (Oppression) 困 and the first sentence I hear in class is: it is over — how long must I be unlucky.

Take that sentence apart first. Kun is exhaustion, blockage, cannot go forward or back. That much does not lie. The judgment itself wrote 「亨，貞，大人吉，無咎」— opening, persistence, a great person is fortunate, no blame. It does not sentence your whole life. It tells you: this well has no water yet. Do not shout the throat raw.

Kun (Oppression) is Lake over Water, Dui above Kan. Dui above — the lake; Kan below — water. Lake above, water below. Water floods the lake; the mouth is submerged. Words can go out, and no one believes them. The second half of the judgment, 「有言不信」— there are words, they are not believed — is this picture. In Kun you most want to explain, appeal, post a clarification. This hexagram least eats the mouth.

Why Sheng is followed by Kun (Oppression)

The Xu Gua says: 「升而不已必困，故受之以困。」 Rise without cease and you must be oppressed, so Kun follows. Climbing until qi cannot connect: that is Kun. Before it may be Sheng 升, expansion, a rhythm you yourself pulled full. Draw Kun: not necessarily someone harming you. It may be rising too long, and the road narrowed by itself.

The Tuan says: 「困，剛掩也。險以說。困而不失其所亨，其唯君子乎。貞，大人吉，以剛中也。有言不信，尚口乃窮也。」 Kun: the firm is covered. Danger and yet pleased. Oppressed and not losing what opens: is that not the superior person. Persistence, a great person fortunate, because of the firm in the center. Words are not believed: valuing the mouth, you are exhausted. What truly passes Kun is not a sharp mouth. It is 「困而不失其所亨」: the opening stretch is still there, only pressed. Do not sell yourself first.

The Xiang says: a lake without water, Kun. The superior person stakes life to follow the will. Water in the lake has leaked away; the surface is dry. Staking life is not seeking death. It is putting life on the will, not trading the will for a pleasant sentence now. Draw Kun and first ask: what one thing do you still keep that cannot be dropped? Keep it, and Kun is a stretch. Cannot keep it, and Kun becomes a character.

Career and wealth: first put down “proving yourself”

Ask about career and draw Kun: the common picture is a proposal no one hears, a superior not replying, a market not buying, a résumé sent out as if into a dark valley. You are not not working. You worked and were not received. The most expensive tuition then is turning the volume up. Words are not believed. Say it a third time and people only find you hollow.

In strategy, Kun suits guarding the root, repairing the craft, protecting cash and credit. It does not suit opening a new battlefield, hard collision in a meeting. In wealth, receipts are slow, receivables drag, invested money sits in the lake bottom. Not necessarily bankrupt. Realization is hard. Large guarantees, lending a name, adding leverage: all walk against this hexagram. Small sums that keep daily life: keep them. Hoping one sum will reverse everything: treat it as a red light first.

Kun’s six lines are not equally black. Nine in the second: 「困于酒食，朱紱方來」— oppressed by wine and food; the vermilion sash is just coming. It looks like there is eating and drinking. In fact you are pressed on the seat by wine and food, cannot move. Official dress, a letter of appointment, a title still on the road: do not campaign yet. To campaign is unfortunate; no blame: this stretch is not for striking out. Guard, and there is no great error. Many people read oppression by wine and food as enjoyment. Backward. Being kept, left on a post, invited to eat and given no real power: this line’s modern face.

Kun (Oppression) in love: not no love — words cannot get through

Ask about love and draw Kun: the two people need not scatter. What is said now is not believed. Explaining motives, turning old accounts, sending a long letter: efficiency extremely low. Dui is the mouth; the mouth is flooded. The more urgently you try to make it clear, the more the other person finds you inventing.

If you are already together, Kun is often outer conditions pinning people: money, family, distance, a title not there. What matches the hexagram’s qi is lowering the demand to the stretch that can be done: get the day lived, pay what should be paid, less judging “do you love me or not.” Ask the love question inside Kun, and the answer will skew.

If you are single and draw Kun, it is not a life without a partner. In this stretch people you meet cannot hear you, or you yourself are stuck in the last chapter’s dark valley, unseen for three years, not yet out. Smashing Kun with more dates is installing another set of speakers on a closed door. First pull yourself out of self-defense at the valley bottom. More useful than meeting three more people.

Workplace relations under Kun: beware being pulled into a field of “no one believes anyone.” Take fewer stands, pass fewer messages, finish what can be delivered. In Kun’s environment, information is poor. One more sentence may be one more version against you.

A few lines must be recognized correctly, or advice reverses

The initial six: 「臀困于株木，入于幽谷，三歲不覿」. The buttocks oppressed on a stump, entering a dark valley, three years without being seen. At the very bottom, sitting on a dead root, into a dark valley, unseen for years. Draw the initial six: do not seek to be seen, do not appeal, do not hope to be understood soon. This line’s Kun is not seeing a way out — not that your ability is beyond help. Live first. Explain less.

Six in the third: 「困于石，據于蒺藜，入于其宮，不見其妻，凶」. Oppressed by stone, sitting on thorns, entering the palace and not seeing the wife: unfortunate. Stone in front, thorns behind, home and even the wife unseen. The place is all wrong and you still force your way in. In career: a support you should not lean on, a seat you should not occupy — occupy it and you lose even the people at home. Ask about love and draw six in the third: neither end is pleased, and home is empty too. Do not save this line with “try a little harder.” Retreat.

Nine in the fourth: 「來徐徐，困于金車，吝，有終」. Coming slowly, oppressed by a gold carriage; regret, there is an end. Coming very slow, pinned by a gold carriage. There are resources, a carriage, and the carriage itself has become a burden. Draw nine in the fourth: the matter will grind, face will not look good, and there is an end. Slow is more useful than forcing the gold carriage.

Nine in the fifth: 「劓刖，困于赤紱，乃徐有說，利用祭祀」. Nose and feet cut, oppressed by the red sash; slowly there is joy; beneficial to use sacrifice. Nose and feet injured, pinned by red official dress, joy only slowly. High-place Kun looks worse than low-place Kun: the name is still there, the person is already hurt. The method is not another set of merits. It is slowly, sacrifice, gathering the heart back to the matter you should revere. Rush a reversal, and the injury deepens.

Upper six: 「困于葛藟，于臲卼，曰動悔，有悔，征吉」. Oppressed by vines, unsteady; saying movement will bring regret; there is regret; to campaign is fortunate. Tangled in vines, cannot stand steady, the heart saying one move and there is regret. The key of this line is the back: there is regret; to campaign is fortunate. Kun to the extreme: recognize this mouth of regret, then move. Keep saying “wait a little more” and you tangle to death on the vine. Draw the upper six: not an order to squat further. Think the regret clear, then go out. The one line in Kun that clearly encourages campaigning is mostly here.

See these lines through and you understand: Kun has the Kun of squatting, of waiting for a title, of a wrong place, of extremity that should walk. Use the same sentence “your luck is low now” on all of them, and you advise the person who should move to death, and the person who should be still into restlessness.

In class I gather Kun (Oppression) into three sentences

First, words are not believed: then fewer words. Do what can be done, repair what can be repaired, save what can be saved. Appeals, confessions, statements: leave them until the mouth is not flooded.

Second, oppressed and not losing what opens. Opening is not that the outside already opens. It is the stretch still inside you: craft, credit, the body, someone still willing to come. Guard one of these four, and Kun can be passed. Trade all four for one sentence of being understood, and Kun will go home with you.

Third, look at the line before you decide whether to move. Nine in the second’s wine-and-food Kun: moving is unfortunate. The upper six’s vine Kun: not moving is the true regret. The same hexagram, practices can reverse. That is why Kun cannot be written as forever without help, and cannot be written as charge once now and reverse.

Kun and Pi 否 are often compared. Pi is Heaven and Earth not exchanging, qi as a whole not opening: be frugal in virtue, avoid difficulty. Kun is the firm covered, the mouth flooded: the person is still in the field, only speaking is not heard, walking has no road. Pi leans toward a whole climate. Kun leans toward the place you yourself are stuck. Both can be guarded. What you guard differs: Pi guards not stretching the neck toward honor and emolument. Kun guards not using the mouth to talk the remaining road shut.

To see the blocked side: I Ching Pi Meaning | Hexagram 12 How to Read: Getting Through Standstill. After Kun, return to a source that can feed people; the next hexagram is Jing: I Ching Jing Meaning | Hexagram 48 How to Read: The Well, How to Repair What Feeds People. If the posture of holding must be put right, Modesty is useful: I Ching Qian (Modesty) Meaning | Hexagram 15 How to Read: All Six Lines Fortunate.

I Ching Kun (Oppression) FAQ

If I draw Kun, must this matter fail?

Not necessarily fail. Now it does not open, is not believed, cannot move. Many things are fed inside Kun, and only show merit at Jing, at a later opening. Force a Kun year into a founding year, a duel year, a year of forcing marriage, and the failure rate goes up. A great person is fortunate: fortune is in being able to hold, not in winning for others to see at this moment.

Oppressed by wine and food: is there still good food, still people inviting me to eat?

There can be eating, and eating itself is Kun. Being left in meetings, kept on a post, bound by drinking without decision power: all wine-and-food Kun. The vermilion sash is just coming: the title is on the road. Do not campaign yet. Treat a dinner invitation as a patron arriving, and you make nine in the second into campaigning unfortunate.

Work is unsmooth, I drew Kun: should I resign?

Look at the line. The initial six and six in the third: do not resign naked in anger. Jumping again from a valley bottom and thorns is changing one Kun for another. Nine in the fourth can slowly find a next place. The upper six, regret thought clear, should move instead. Walking with no next footing is walking “there is an end” into “no end.”

How do I tell Kun from Pi? Drawing Kun again and again?

Pi is above and below not exchanging, a whole sheet of qi closed. Kun is you covered, tangled, speaking not believed. Drawing Kun again and again: first check whether you are still fighting with the mouth. Changing the practice is more useful than shaking until you panic. If the line of Kun at the extreme appears, do not treat “holding” as hiding anymore.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.