I Ching Hexagram 47: Oppression - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 47, Oppression (Kun), means the supply has run dry while the demands on you continue, and the correct response is to spend less, hold your purpose, and stop defending yourself in words. Lake sits above Water, a lake bed drained from below. This guide covers the trigrams, the Judgement, the Image, all six changing lines, the nuclear and opposite hexagrams, and how hexagram 47 reads for a decision, a relationship and work.

What does I Ching Hexagram 47 (Oppression) mean?

I Ching Hexagram 47, Oppression, means the supply that was keeping you going has run out while the demands on you have not, and the correct response is to spend less, hold your purpose, and stop arguing your case. Its Chinese name is Kun, written as a tree inside four walls: a living thing with roots and sap still in it, hemmed into a space too small to put out branches. That character governs the reading. Hexagram 47 is not about a wall in front of you, it is about pressure all around you and nothing left in the tank. The Great Treatise in the Ten Wings gives Kun a one-line gloss that practitioners repeat constantly: Oppression is the test of character. That is the frame. Hexagram 47 asks what remains of a person once comfort, credit, allies and the benefit of the doubt have all been withdrawn. Readers who draw i ching hexagram 47 have usually been carrying something too long on too little, and are close to either breaking or bargaining. The hexagram 47 meaning does not tell you to try harder, because effort is exactly the resource you no longer have. It tells you to shrink the footprint, protect the core commitment, and wait out the drought without trading it away.

Placement in the King Wen sequence explains why hexagram 47 arrives when it does. The Sequence commentary states that one who pushes upward without stopping is certain to meet with oppression, which is why Kun follows Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward. Hexagram 47 is the moment a long ascent outruns its own supply line, and nothing in the reading calls the climb a mistake. The same commentary gives the exit: one who is oppressed above turns back downward, so Hexagram 48, The Well, follows. Chinese commentary tradition also attaches hexagram 47 to the episode of Confucius and his disciples stranded between Chen and Cai with their provisions gone, teaching and playing music while hungry. That story is the model case of Kun, because circumstances stripped everything away and the man's conduct did not change. It is the standard hexagram 47 applies to you. The oracle cares less about whether you escape than about what you become while you cannot.

Is Hexagram 47 (Oppression) a bad omen in the I Ching?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, is a hard hexagram but not a condemning one. Its Judgement opens with success and ends with no blame, which is the oracle saying the exhaustion is neither your fault nor permanent. What hexagram 47 warns against is the behavior exhaustion produces: pleading, over-explaining, and cheap deals made to end the pressure early.

What is the Chinese name of I Ching Hexagram 47?

The Chinese name of I Ching Hexagram 47 is Kun, the character showing a tree enclosed by walls, usually translated as Oppression, Exhaustion, Confinement or Adversity. It is a different word and a different character from the Kun of Hexagram 2, The Receptive, which shares only the romanized spelling.

How is Hexagram 47 different from Hexagram 39, Obstruction?

Hexagram 39, Obstruction, puts an obstacle in front of you while you still have strength, so retreat and a detour solve it. Hexagram 47, Oppression, removes the strength itself. In hexagram 47 the road may be wide open and you still cannot walk it.

Which two trigrams form Hexagram 47, and why does Lake over Water mean Oppression?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, is formed by Dui, the Lake, in the upper trigram and Kan, Water, in the lower trigram, and the combination means Oppression because the water has sunk below the lake instead of filling it. Water belongs in the lake. When Kan sits underneath Dui, the water table has dropped past the lake bed and drained away, leaving a basin that still has its shape but nothing in it. That is the exact condition hexagram 47 describes: the form of your life is intact, the job title, the marriage, the reputation, the schedule, while the substance that fed all of it has gone somewhere you cannot reach. There is a second layer in the trigram attributes. Kan is danger, and Dui is joyousness, so hexagram 47 is danger inside with cheerfulness outside. The Tuan commentary treats this as the whole virtue of the hexagram: in danger yet still serene, oppressed yet not losing his success, and only the superior man manages it. Structurally the Tuan gives a four-word diagnosis for hexagram 47, that the firm is covered over. The three yielding lines in first, third and top place sit under, between and above the three firm lines, so every strong line in this hexagram is smothered by a soft one.

Dui carries a second attribute that hexagram 47 uses pointedly. In the trigram lore of the Ten Wings, Dui is the mouth: speech, persuasion, the pleasure of talking. In hexagram 47 the mouth sits on top of a drained lake, which is why the Judgement ends by saying that when one has something to say, it is not believed. The trigram of speech is present and dry, so words come out carrying nothing. That structural point explains most of the practical advice attached to i ching hexagram 47, because it identifies the one thing you will want to do as the one thing that cannot work. The seasonal reading reinforces it, since Dui belongs to autumn and the west, the turn toward the year's contraction. Practitioners also note that nothing in the trigrams of hexagram 47 shows rescue arriving from outside. Relief here comes through the firm lines holding, not through the weather changing.

What are the line values of Hexagram 47 from bottom to top?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, reads from the bottom up as yin, yang, yin, yang, yang, yin: a six at the beginning, a nine in the second place, a six in the third, a nine in the fourth, a nine in the fifth and a six at the top. The lower three form Kan, the upper three Dui.

What does the Dui trigram contribute to Hexagram 47?

Dui, the Lake, contributes the empty basin and the mouth to Hexagram 47. It supplies the outward composure that keeps a person in hexagram 47 pleasant while starving underneath, and the warning about speech, since Dui is the trigram of talk and here it is dry.

What does the Kan trigram contribute to Hexagram 47?

Kan, Water, contributes the danger and the drainage to Hexagram 47. Placed underneath rather than above, Kan is water that has gone below the level where it can be used, so the risk in hexagram 47 sits inside the situation, quietly emptying it, rather than standing visibly ahead.

What does the Judgement of Hexagram 47 say and how do you read it?

The Judgement of Hexagram 47, Oppression, reads: Oppression. Success. Perseverance. The great man brings about good fortune. No blame. When one has something to say, it is not believed. Read the order of those clauses, because the order is the teaching. Success is named in the second word, before any instruction and before any warning, which tells you the oracle does not regard the exhaustion of hexagram 47 as defeat. Then comes perseverance, which here means constancy of character rather than continued effort, since effort is precisely what has run out. Then the great man, meaning the person whose bearing does not change when the supports are removed. Then no blame, an explicit release from fault: hexagram 47 does not read the drought as punishment for a mistake. The last clause is the practical one and the one people ignore. When you have something to say, it will not be believed. In an oppression reading your credibility is depressed along with everything else, so explanations land as excuses, appeals land as pressure, and the more you say the worse your position gets. The instruction hidden in that clause is to go quiet and let conduct do the arguing until the water level comes back up.

The Tuan commentary expands the Judgement with a line practitioners treat as the working definition of i ching oppression: in danger yet joyous, in oppression yet not losing his success, and who can do this but the superior man. Success in hexagram 47 is not an outcome that arrives at the end, it is a quality maintained throughout, so a person who keeps their standards through the drought is already succeeding by the terms of this hexagram. Notice too that both firm lines carrying the hexagram, the nine in the second and the nine in the fifth, are told in their line texts to make offerings and to stay put rather than set forth. The Judgement's success is bought by that restraint. Hexagram 47 never promises that endurance is rewarded on a schedule. It warns that the alternative, breaking character to end the pressure sooner, converts a temporary shortage into a permanent loss of standing.

Why does the Judgement of Hexagram 47 promise success?

The Judgement of Hexagram 47 promises success because in this hexagram success means keeping your nature intact under pressure, not getting what you wanted. The Tuan commentary defines it as being oppressed and still not losing one's success, which is a description of conduct rather than a forecast of relief.

What does when one has something to say, it is not believed mean in Hexagram 47?

In Hexagram 47, Oppression, that clause means your word carries no weight now, so defending yourself makes things worse. Dui, the trigram of the mouth, sits on top of a drained lake. Stop explaining, accept being misread for a while, and let your actions restore your credit later.

Who is the great man in Hexagram 47?

The great man in Hexagram 47, Oppression, is the person whose behavior is unchanged by having nothing, and the Judgement says it is this person who brings good fortune. In a reading it points either to that quality in you or to a steady figure nearby worth copying.

What is the Image of Hexagram 47 and what does it ask you to do?

The Image of Hexagram 47, Oppression, reads: There is no water in the lake, the image of Oppression. Thus the superior man stakes his life on following his will. The picture is a drought basin, cracked and empty, and the instruction that follows it is the most severe in the entire hexagram. The Chinese phrase behind it means to commit your fate to fulfilling your purpose. Hexagram 47 does not ask you to endure quietly and hope. It asks you to decide what your life is actually for and then stake the remaining resources on that, accepting that you may not be compensated. This is why hexagram 47 is called the test of character in the Ten Wings. When the lake is full, purpose costs nothing to hold, because there is enough for the purpose and for comfort. When the lake is dry, only one of them survives, and hexagram 47 says which one you are supposed to keep. In practice this reads as radical prioritization under scarcity. Identify the single commitment that would make the drought worth having gone through, fund that, and let everything else contract. What the Image forbids is the halfway position, spreading a thin supply evenly across everything until nothing is sustained.

The Image is often misread as advice to suffer patiently, and hexagram 47 is stricter than that. Staking your life on your will is an active choice made at the worst possible moment for choosing, with the least information and the least margin, and that is deliberate. Hexagram 47 assumes the pressure will strip you of the ability to hedge, so it tells you to choose before the pressure chooses for you. There is also a warning against theatre. A person in oppression is tempted to perform the hardship so that someone comes to help, and the Image points instead toward a decision made privately and carried without an audience. On duration, practitioners read the drought as a season rather than a climate, since a lake can refill and the inverse hexagram, The Well, guarantees water is still down there. The Image does not date the rain.

What does stakes his life on following his will mean in Hexagram 47 practically?

In Hexagram 47, Oppression, it means committing your remaining time, money and energy to the one purpose you would not trade, and letting the rest go unsupported. The phrase means to entrust your fate to your intention, so it calls for a hard choice of priority, not a general resolve to endure.

Does the Image of Hexagram 47 tell you to endure passively?

No. The Image of Hexagram 47 is not an instruction to wait it out; its verb is a commitment, staking everything on the fulfillment of one's will. What hexagram 47 removes is the option of spreading yourself thinly, not the option of acting decisively within a small radius.

How long does the oppression of Hexagram 47 last?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, is read as a season rather than a permanent state, and the six at the beginning gives the only number in the hexagram, three years, as the length of a self-inflicted version. Readers usually take relief as arriving when the reserves are rebuilt, not on a fixed date.

What do the six changing lines of Hexagram 47 mean?

The six changing lines of Hexagram 47, Oppression, trace a descent into confinement in the lower trigram and a slow, expensive release in the upper one. The six at the beginning reads that one sits oppressed under a bare tree and strays into a gloomy valley, seeing nothing for three years. This is oppression that has become a habitat: a person has settled under a tree with no shade and stopped looking for anything better, and the three years is the cost of that resignation. The nine in the second place reads that one is oppressed while at meat and drink, the man with the scarlet knee bands is just coming, it furthers one to offer sacrifice, to set forth brings misfortune, no blame. This is the strange oppression of having enough materially and still being trapped, with help approaching from above and the instruction to make an offering rather than to go out and meet it. The six in the third place is the worst line in hexagram 47: a man permits himself to be oppressed by stone, leans on thorns and thistles, enters his house and does not see his wife, misfortune. He is pressing against what cannot move and resting on what wounds, and by the time he goes home the support there has gone too.

The upper trigram of hexagram 47 turns toward rescue, slowly and at a cost. The nine in the fourth place reads that he comes very quietly, oppressed in a golden carriage, humiliation, but the end is reached: a person of standing whose own wealth slows him down, arriving late to help someone below, embarrassed but arriving. The nine in the fifth place carries the harshest imagery in the hexagram: his nose and feet are cut off, oppression at the hands of the man with the purple knee bands, joy comes softly, it furthers one to make offerings and libations. The mutilation is the classical picture of a ruler who can neither smell his way forward nor walk toward anyone, blocked above and below at once, and the relief arrives gradually. The six at the top is oppressed by creeping vines, the weakest thing in the hexagram, and makes good fortune conditional on admitting the hesitation and starting anyway.

Which changing line of Hexagram 47 is the most serious warning?

The six in the third place is the most serious warning in Hexagram 47, Oppression, and the Great Treatise singles it out, commenting that a man oppressed by what should not oppress him will certainly have his name disgraced. Pressing against stone and leaning on thorns is self-chosen suffering, and the line ends in misfortune.

Which line rules Hexagram 47?

The nine in the fifth place rules Hexagram 47, Oppression, with the nine in the second as its counterpart below. Both are firm lines covered by yielding ones, both are told to make offerings rather than force a move, and the fifth is where relief is first named.

What does Hexagram 47 change into when the fifth line moves?

When the nine in the fifth place of Hexagram 47 moves, the upper trigram becomes Zhen and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 40, Deliverance. That transformation matches the line text exactly: the ruler of Oppression, cut off above and below, releases into the hexagram of the thunderstorm that breaks the tension.

What are the nuclear, inverse and opposite hexagrams of Hexagram 47?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, has Hexagram 37, The Family, as its nuclear hexagram, Hexagram 48, The Well, as its inverse, and Hexagram 22, Grace, as its opposite. The nuclear is built from the inner lines, the second through fifth, which give Li below and Xun above: fire in the house with wind feeding it, the hexagram of the well-ordered household. That is a precise statement about where the reserves are in hexagram 47. When the public supply has failed, what is still burning is domestic, the people who are yours by obligation rather than by contract. Turn the hexagram upside down and you get Hexagram 48, The Well, which is why the two are always read as a pair. Hexagram 47 is a lake that has drained; hexagram 48 is the shaft sunk to the water that never drains. The classic answers Oppression with the discovery that the supply was never on the surface. Change every line and you get Hexagram 22, Grace, the hexagram of form, ornament and appearance. The opposite of exhaustion in the I Ching is not abundance, it is decoration, and setting hexagram 47 against hexagram 22 sharpens both: one has substance without appearance, the other appearance without substance.

The nuclear reading is the most useful of the three in a live consultation. Hexagram 37, The Family, sitting inside i ching oppression tells a reader where to spend what little is left: the small circle with defined roles, the relationships that do not require you to be impressive, the routines that hold a household together when the income does not. It carries a caution too, because The Family is the hexagram of everyone keeping to their proper place, and oppression is the condition most likely to make people abandon theirs. The inverse pair with Hexagram 48 governs timing, since hexagram 47 is the phase where the visible resource fails and hexagram 48 the phase where a deeper one is found. The opposite, Hexagram 22, Grace, works as a diagnostic: strip a thing of its appearance, and ask whether what remains is enough to live on.

What is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 47?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 47, Oppression, is Hexagram 37, The Family, formed from Li below and Xun above out of the inner four lines. It says the fire still burning inside an oppression reading is domestic, so the remaining strength of hexagram 47 is found in a small circle with clear roles.

Why are Hexagram 47 and Hexagram 48 read as a pair?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, turned upside down becomes Hexagram 48, The Well, so the two form an inverse pair in the King Wen sequence. Hexagram 47 is the drained lake and hexagram 48 the groundwater below it, making the pair one teaching about where reliable supply sits.

How does Hexagram 47 differ from Hexagram 29, The Abysmal Water?

Hexagram 29, The Abysmal Water, is danger repeating, water that must be entered and passed through with correct method. Hexagram 47, Oppression, is water that has gone, so there is nothing to swim. Hexagram 29 asks for nerve and skill; hexagram 47 asks for rationing and character.

What does Hexagram 47 mean for a decision?

For a decision, I Ching Hexagram 47, Oppression, means you are being asked to choose while depleted, so the answer is to make the smallest possible commitment and protect the one thing you would not trade. Hexagram 47 does not veto the plan. Its Judgement grants success and no blame, which is unusual for a hexagram this dark, and it tells you the problem is capacity rather than direction. What the oracle warns against is the class of decisions people make when they want the pressure to stop: signing something for immediate relief, accepting terms you would have refused a year ago, or resolving the matter by convincing someone. That last one is ruled out explicitly, since anything you say now will not be believed. The most reliable use of hexagram 47 in a decision reading is to separate the choice from the exhaustion. Ask whether you would choose this if you were rested and funded. If the answer is no, hexagram 47 is showing you a decision being driven by the drought rather than by judgement. If the answer is yes, then the Image applies and you stake what remains on it, letting everything else go unsupported for a season.

Timing in a hexagram 47 decision runs long. The only number in the hexagram is the three years of the six at the beginning, attached to the person who sat down under a bare tree and stopped looking, so it is a warning rather than a forecast. It still sets the register, and this is not a matter of days. Readers treat hexagram 47 as advising against irreversible moves until reserves have started to rebuild, on the grounds that every option looks worse than it is when you are this low. Changing lines refine the answer. A nine in the second says stay put and make the offering, since setting forth brings misfortune, while a six at the top says the vines holding you are weak and hesitation is now the real problem. Without changing lines, i ching hexagram 47 for a decision means defer the large commitment and revisit the question once you can fund an answer rather than needing one.

Does Hexagram 47 mean I should abandon the plan?

No. Hexagram 47, Oppression, says you cannot currently fund the plan, not that the plan is wrong. Its Judgement grants both success and no blame, so the reading points to reducing scope and delaying commitment rather than abandoning the purpose.

What timing does Hexagram 47 suggest for a decision?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, suggests a long timeframe governed by recovery rather than by dates. The three years named in the six at the beginning sets the register, and relief is taken as arriving once reserves rebuild, so the decision is revisited then.

What is the wrong move when Hexagram 47 answers a yes or no question?

The wrong move under Hexagram 47, Oppression, is buying relief: accepting bad terms, borrowing against the future, or arguing someone into agreement. The Judgement states that what you say will not be believed, so persuasion wastes the little energy you have left.

What does Hexagram 47 mean in a relationship reading?

In a relationship reading, I Ching Hexagram 47, Oppression, means the bond has been drained rather than broken, and that talking about it right now will not repair it. The most quoted line in the hexagram for relationships is the six in the third place, where a man leans on thorns and thistles, then enters his house and does not see his wife. That is a picture of someone who has spent everything fighting something immovable outside and comes home to find the support there has quietly gone, not through betrayal but through neglect and depletion. Hexagram 47 in a relationship usually describes two people who still care and have nothing left to express it with, or one partner carrying a pressure the other cannot see. The Judgement's warning about speech applies with unusual force here. Attempts to explain yourself, to make your effort visible, or to establish who has given more will not be believed and will make the position worse. The nuclear hexagram, The Family, points toward what does work: resuming the ordinary domestic pattern, the meals and roles and small dependable acts, which restore credit far faster than any conversation about the relationship can.

Hexagram 47 also names an external pressure often missed in relationship readings. The nine in the second place shows a person oppressed while at meat and drink, meaning everything looks provided for from outside, which is exactly how a comfortable relationship under strain appears to friends and family. The line still counts it as oppression and advises an offering rather than setting forth, a gesture of devotion made without demanding a response. Hexagram 47 handles reconciliation carefully: the nine in the fourth place has someone coming very quietly in a golden carriage, ashamed of being slow, and the line still ends with the end is reached, so late and awkward repair counts here. What the hexagram discourages is the ultimatum and the summit meeting, both speech acts where speech carries no weight. Where only habit remains, the six at the top says movement brings good fortune once the hesitation is admitted.

Does Hexagram 47 mean a relationship is ending?

Not by itself. Hexagram 47, Oppression, describes a relationship drained of resources rather than one destroyed, and the hexagram's Judgement includes no blame. Endings appear in specific lines, particularly the six in the third place, where a man comes home and does not see his wife, and the six at the top, where only habit remains.

What does Hexagram 47 say about talking things through with a partner?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, advises against it for now, since its Judgement states that when one has something to say, it is not believed. Repair comes through resumed ordinary conduct, which the nuclear hexagram, The Family, points to, rather than through a conversation about the relationship.

What does Hexagram 47 mean for someone single?

For someone single, Hexagram 47, Oppression, usually means you have no surplus to spend on courtship. The hexagram advises rebuilding your own supply first, since a connection formed while depleted tends to be a deal made to end the pressure rather than a choice.

What does Hexagram 47 mean for work, career and money?

For work and money, I Ching Hexagram 47, Oppression, means the income or the energy that supported your position has dried up while the obligations attached to it continue, and the answer is to cut the outgoings before they cut you. The drained lake is a direct picture of a business with the same fixed costs and less revenue, or a role with the same expectations and no support. Hexagram 47 also describes the well-paid version of the trap through the nine in the second place, oppression while at meat and drink, which practitioners read as the good salary that has become a cage: the compensation is real and the person is still confined. In career questions hexagram 47 counsels against the visible move. Setting forth brings misfortune in that line, and the Judgement removes persuasion from your options, so campaigning for a promotion, escalating a complaint, or making your case to leadership during this period tends to cost credibility rather than build it. The productive work under hexagram 47 is unglamorous and private: reduce the burn rate, protect the one project that justifies the whole effort, and keep your conduct clean while people who have written you off are still watching.

Money readings under hexagram 47 turn on the difference between the lake and the well. The lake is surface supply, the client who pays most of your invoices, the single salary, the credit line, and it is what has just failed. The inverse hexagram, The Well, points to the deeper source: a skill, an old relationship, a smaller and less flattering line of income that never dried up because it was never fashionable. Readers frequently take hexagram 47 as instruction to go back to that. On borrowing the hexagram is severe, because taking on obligation to end the pressure early is exactly the deal the Image warns against. Relief is still promised. The nine in the fifth place ends with joy coming softly, which reads in work terms as recovery arriving in small contracts and quiet returns of trust rather than in one rescue. Those who recover best were still doing the work properly when nobody was funding it.

What does Hexagram 47 mean for a job search?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, in a job search means applications sent from a depleted position will not carry, because your word does not persuade right now. The hexagram favors people who already know your work, the deeper supply its inverse hexagram, The Well, describes.

What does Hexagram 47 say about a struggling business?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, tells a struggling business that the shortage is in supply rather than in the idea, and that survival depends on cutting the burn rate and protecting the core offering. It warns against borrowing or discounting for quick relief, which turns a bad season into a permanent weakness.

Is Hexagram 47 a warning about burnout?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, is the classic exhaustion hexagram, and burnout fits its picture closely: the form of the working life intact, the substance drained away underneath. The six at the beginning warns about settling into that depletion for years.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is I Ching Hexagram 47 in one sentence?

I Ching Hexagram 47, Oppression, means you are drained rather than blocked: the supply has run out while the obligations continue, and the way through is to reduce what you spend, keep hold of your purpose, and stop trying to talk your way clear.

What is the Judgement text of Hexagram 47, Oppression?

What trigrams make up Hexagram 47?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, is formed by Dui, the Lake, above and Kan, Water, below. Water sitting under the lake rather than in it gives the picture of a lake bed that has drained away underneath, which is why Kun, hexagram 47, is read as exhaustion of supply rather than as a barrier ahead.

Is Hexagram 47 a yes or a no?

Hexagram 47, Oppression, is a not now rather than a no. The Judgement opens with success and closes with no blame, so hexagram 47 does not condemn the plan, but you lack the reserves to carry it at present.

Which changing line of Hexagram 47 is the turning point?

The nine in the fifth place is the turning point of Hexagram 47, Oppression. It carries the harshest imagery in the hexagram, nose and feet cut off, and then says joy comes softly. That line changing turns hexagram 47 into Hexagram 40, Deliverance, the release the whole hexagram has been waiting for.

What hexagram follows Hexagram 47 in the King Wen sequence?

Hexagram 48, The Well, follows Hexagram 47, Oppression, in the King Wen sequence. The Sequence commentary explains the move directly: one who is oppressed above turns back downward, so The Well comes next. Hexagram 47 empties the lake, and hexagram 48 goes down to the groundwater that never empties.

How should you act after receiving I Ching Hexagram 47?

After receiving I Ching Hexagram 47, Oppression, cut your outgoings, protect the one commitment that matters most, and let your conduct rather than your explanations answer the people who doubt you. Hexagram 47 rewards the person who spends nothing on self-justification and everything on holding position.