🔮 The Oracle Speaks
In shadowed valleys where waters stagnate beneath unyielding ice, your spirit whispers through cracks of confinement. Endure the squeeze of barren winds, for from exhaustion blooms the hidden spring of renewal. Surrender not to despair's grip, but carve silent paths with inner fire's patient glow.
✨ Essence
Hexagram 47 reveals the harsh grip of exhaustion, where external pressures drain vitality and resources feel utterly depleted. In modern life, this manifests as burnout from relentless demands, isolation in crowded spaces, or creativity stifled by routine. Yet, it teaches resilience: true strength emerges not from fighting the void, but navigating it with inner clarity. Embrace this as a call to conserve energy, seek subtle allies, and await the natural shift toward abundance.
The lower trigram of Water flows inward, symbolizing deep emotional reserves strained by stagnation, while the upper Lake reflects a brittle surface joy masking underlying aridity. Their union creates a lake frozen over a hidden stream—beautiful yet inaccessible, urging one to melt barriers through subtle warmth rather than force. Water nourishes Lake's shallows, but oppression arises when flow is blocked, demanding patience to thaw the impasse. This interplay warns against superficial cheer, favoring authentic depth to restore harmony.
🖼️ The Image
A parched oasis encircled by jagged obsidian cliffs, where a single underground rivulet pulses faintly, mocking the cracked earth above. Desperate travelers gather at its edge, their shadows merging into a collective vigil, until dawn's first ray fractures the stone and unleashes a torrent. This vision embodies exhaustion's paradox: barren without, vital within, transformation inevitable for the steadfast.
🌟 Divination Insights
⚠️ Shadow Warning
Despair's whisper lures into paralysis, eroding the will to persist. Clinging to false hopes invites deeper entrapment and relational fractures.
🎁 Gift Revealed
This energy forges unbreakable inner fortitude, revealing profound wisdom born of trials. It gifts magnetic authenticity that draws true allies in vulnerability.
❓ Question Guidance
This Hexagram Best Answers Questions About:
Navigating burnout; enduring hardships; finding inner strength in scarcity
Ask Yourself:
"What hidden resource within me can sustain me through this depletion?"
⏰ Timing
Duration of Influence: Typically 9-18 weeks, mirroring a full cycle of depletion and subtle recovery
Action Window: After 3-7 days of intentional rest, when inner signals confirm renewed vitality
📊 The Six Lines
Line 1: The Foundation
At the outset, anchor your resolve in unshakeable core strength amid rising scarcity. Conserve words and actions, drawing from personal reserves to weather initial deprivations. This grounded yang fosters survival by prioritizing essentials over illusions of control.
When Changing: When this line moves, rigidity softens into adaptability, signaling relief through humble alliances that unlock stalled progress.
Line 2: The Inner Growth
Cultivate quiet endurance in vulnerability, offering sincere support to kindred spirits without expectation. This yielding space invites mutual sustenance, turning isolation into subtle nourishment. Focus on heartfelt connections to rebuild inner momentum.
When Changing: Movement here heralds redemption through forgiveness, where past offerings bear unexpected fruit in renewed trust.
Line 3: The Threshold
Avoid escapist fantasies that deepen the mire; face limitations with sober realism to cross this precarious brink. Harsh words or rash retreats amplify suffering—choose measured restraint instead. Pivot toward practical surrender for safe passage.
When Changing: Its shift brings piercing insight, dissolving delusions and revealing viable paths forward with clarity.
Line 4: The Outer Beginning
Extend gentle aid slowly into the outer world, moving like mist over reluctant terrain. Gradual engagement prevents backlash, building bridges from a place of poised receptivity. Initiate change through empathy, not imposition.
When Changing: Transformation activates bold outreach, where timely intervention turns potential allies into powerful supporters.
Line 5: The Ruler
From the heart of oppression, wield influence through eloquent authenticity, speaking truths that resonate deeply. Leadership shines in vulnerability, inspiring loyalty without coercion. Harness this position to advocate for collective relief.
When Changing: When it changes, sovereign clarity emerges, empowering decisive words that rally and liberate the weary.
Line 6: The Culmination
At the peak, release attachments to outworn structures, for prolonged strain invites collapse. Celebrate small victories while preparing for flux—excessive clinging breeds downfall. Transition with grace into fresher cycles.
When Changing: Its movement liberates fully, catapulting beyond exhaustion into expansive freedom and new horizons.
The classic text — James Legge, 1882
The judgment, the image and the line statements below are James Legge's translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI, The Yî King (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), now in the public domain. The judgment and line statements are transcribed from a scan of that printing (Wikimedia Commons, Sacred Books of the East - Volume 16.djvu, scan pages 195, 196 and 197; printed pages 161–163): the scan's machine-read text was corrected line by line against the page images (2026-09-30). The image comes from the scan page named beside it. Legge's notes are left out. Words in round brackets are Legge's own additions to the terse Chinese, and his spellings of Chinese names are kept as printed. The other sections of this page are this site's modern reading, not Legge's.
The judgment
In (the condition denoted by) Khwăn there may (yet be) progress and success. For the firm and correct, the (really) great man, there will be good fortune. He will fall into no error. If he make speeches, his words cannot be made good.
The image
From Legge's Appendix II, Treatise on the Symbolism of the Hexagrams: the paragraph he calls ‘the Great Symbolism’, which reads the figure as its two trigrams and draws a lesson from them. It is one of the appendixes, a commentary on the text, not part of the judgment or the line statements. Scan page 359 (printed p. 325), corrected by eye against the page image.
(The trigram representing) a marsh, and (below it that for a defile, which has drained the other dry so that there is) no water in it, form Khwăn. The superior man, in accordance with this, will sacrifice his life in order to carry out his purpose.
The lines, counted from the bottom
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Line 1 (bottom)
The first line, divided, shows its subject with bare buttocks straitened under the stump of a tree. He enters a dark valley, and for three years has no prospect (of deliverance).
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Line 2
The second line, undivided, shows its subject straitened amidst his wine and viands. There come to him anon the red knee-covers (of the ruler). It will be well for him (to maintain his sincerity as) in sacrificing. Active operations (on his part) will lead to evil, but he will be free from blame.
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Line 3
The third line, divided, shows its subject straitened before a (frowning) rock. He lays hold of thorns. He enters his palace, and does not see his wife. There will be evil.
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Line 4
The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject proceeding very slowly (to help the subject of the first line), who is straitened by the carriage adorned with metal in front of him. There will be occasion for regret, but the end will be good.
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Line 5
The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject with his nose and feet cut off. He is straitened by (his ministers in their) scarlet aprons. He is leisurely in his movements, however, and is satisfied. It will be well for him to be (as sincere) as in sacrificing (to spiritual beings).
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Line 6 (top)
The sixth line, divided, shows its subject straitened, as if bound with creepers; or in a high and dangerous position, and saying (to himself), 'If I move, I shall repent it.' If he do repent of former errors, there will be good fortune in his going forward.
🌍 Modern Applications
💼 Career & Work
In your professional life, this signals overload—prioritize delegation and boundaries to prevent collapse. Reframe setbacks as incubation for innovation, networking quietly with mentors. Breakthroughs follow enforced rest and strategic minimalism.
💕 Relationships
Connections feel strained; communicate vulnerabilities to deepen bonds rather than withdraw. Avoid blame games—offer quiet presence to heal rifts. True intimacy blooms from shared endurance.
🏃 Health & Wellness
Mind and body signal fatigue—implement restorative sleep, hydration rituals, and gentle movement like yin yoga. Mental depletion warns against overthinking; practice breathwork to release stagnation. Recovery accelerates through nurturing self-compassion.
🧘 Spiritual Growth
On the path, exhaustion strips illusions, inviting surrender to divine timing. Meditate on impermanence to cultivate equanimity. Spiritual depth expands as ego yields to cosmic flow.
🎯 Decision Making
Defer major choices until clarity emerges from rest; trust intuition over pressure. Weigh options against inner reserves, favoring sustainable paths. Patience here averts regretful impulses.
🙏 Daily Practice
Daily Ritual
1. Find a dim space at dusk and light a single blue candle. 2. Hold labradorite in your left hand, whispering "I release what drains." 3. Inhale deeply for four counts, visualizing tension dissolving into water, exhale for six. 4. Repeat thrice, then journal one act of self-nourishment for tomorrow.
Meditation
Close eyes, envision a frozen lake over a subterranean river; feel the ice's weight, then sense the water's persistent pulse beneath. Breathe into the pressure, allowing cracks to form with each exhale. Emerge renewed, carrying the river's quiet power into your day.
Journaling Prompts
What drains my energy most right now? How can I offer myself the same care I'd give a dear friend in hardship? What small victory from past exhaustion proves my resilience?
🔄 Mark the Changing Lines
A cast marks some of the six lines as changing and leaves the rest still. Tick the ones yours marked, counting from the bottom line up, and this works out the hexagram they turn this one into. Each tick flips that line to its opposite — broken becomes unbroken, unbroken becomes broken — and the six lines you are left with are one of the other 63 hexagrams. It resolves as you tick: there is nothing to submit, the arithmetic runs in this page on your own device, and nothing you tick is sent anywhere.
No lines marked as changing. A reading with nothing moving in it stays put: Hexagram 47 is the whole answer and there is no second hexagram to look up.
🔗 Related Hexagrams
Opposite: Hexagram 58 (Joyous Lake), which flows with unbridled exchange versus 47's constricted depths.
Companion: Hexagram 29 (Abysmal Water), amplifying Water's introspective endurance for deeper mastery.
Evolution: Often transforms into Hexagram 58 when central yin lines yield, releasing joy from oppression.
Hexagrams inside and beside this one
Computed from this hexagram's six lines, counted from the bottom. These are structural relations, not part of Legge's translation, and not readings in themselves.
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Nuclear
Hexagram 37: Jiā Rén (The Family)
Formed by taking lines 2–3–4 as the lower trigram (here Fire) and lines 3–4–5 as the upper (here Wind), so the bottom and top lines drop out. Some readers treat it as the core hidden inside a situation; schools differ on how much weight it deserves.
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Inverted
Formed by turning the six lines upside down, so line 6 becomes line 1. The traditional King Wen order is built on this: 56 of the 64 hexagrams stand side by side with their inversion, as Hexagrams 47 and 48 do. Schools differ on how much weight the inversion carries in a reading.
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Opposite
Formed by flipping every line: each solid line becomes broken and each broken line solid. Some readers use it to see what a situation is not; schools differ on how much weight it carries.