A Victory at the Summit That Empties What It Won

Victory at this line is won by contention pushed as far as it will go. A yang stroke occupies an even position at the top of the upper trigram, an irregular placement at the station classical commentary generally reads as a situation carried past its proper limit rather than one still under control. A firm line misplaced at the very summit of the hexagram fits the line text closely: strength that has run past every point where restraint, retreat, or fair judgment was still available, and that has nowhere left to go but into further contention.

When this line changes, the top stroke of Qian becomes yielding, turning the upper trigram into Dui, the joyous lake, while the lower trigram Kan remains fixed below. The resulting hexagram is Number 47, Oppression, lake over water, an image of a lake whose water has drained away beneath it, exhaustion and constraint rather than the abundance the lake usually represents. That a victory won by contention pushed to its absolute limit should transform into the hexagram most associated with depletion and hardship is the clearest possible verdict the sequence offers on that kind of triumph: what looks like winning at the top of Conflict is shown, one step further on, to have emptied out the very resource the contest was fought to secure.