困
Kùn · Exhaustion
The lake has run dry. What is left is the will to keep going.
The judgment
困：亨，貞，大人吉，無咎，有言不信。
Things are exhausted, but the situation can still come through if you stay honest with it. A capable person gets through without blame. Talking your way out will not work right now: words are not believed.
Received text; plain English after the Chinese. Source: 周易經傳 (public-domain). Passage: hex47.judgment.
The image
象曰：澤無水，困；君子以致命遂志。
The lake has no water: that is exhaustion. A capable person accepts the cost and keeps faith with what they have decided to do.
Received text; plain English after the Chinese. Source: 周易經傳 (public-domain). Passage: hex47.image.
When every external support is gone, keep the shape of the thing you decided to do.
The six lines
Each line is a stage, from the bottom of the hexagram to the top. Open any line to read it in plain English.
初六 臀困于株木，入于幽谷，三歲不覿。 You are sitting on something that cannot hold you, sliding into a dark place where no one sees you for a long time. Stay patient: being unseen is not the same as being finished.
You are sitting on something that cannot hold you, sliding into a dark place where no one sees you for a long time. Stay patient: being unseen is not the same as being finished.
九二 困于酒食，朱紱方來，利用亨祀，征凶，無咎。 You have enough to eat and drink, and you are still stuck. Recognition is arriving, but this is not the moment to act on it. Receive it, give thanks, and wait.
You have enough to eat and drink, and you are still stuck. Recognition is arriving, but this is not the moment to act on it. Receive it, give thanks, and wait.
六三 困于石，據于蒺藜，入于其宮，不見其妻，凶。 Stone in front, thorns behind, and when you get home the house is empty. Stop forcing this approach. The position cannot be held any longer, and holding it is what turns the difficulty into harm.
Stone in front, thorns behind, and when you get home the house is empty. Stop forcing this approach. The position cannot be held any longer, and holding it is what turns the difficulty into harm.
九四 來徐徐，困于金車，吝，有終。 Help is on the way, but it is slow, held up by status or other people's schedules. That is regrettable, but the situation does finish.
Help is on the way, but it is slow, held up by status or other people's schedules. That is regrettable, but the situation does finish.
九五 劓刖，困于赤紱，乃徐有說，利用祭祀。 You have lost the means to sense and to move, and the very thing that marks your rank is what traps you. Relief comes gradually. Restore the relationship before you restore the plan.
You have lost the means to sense and to move, and the very thing that marks your rank is what traps you. Relief comes gradually. Restore the relationship before you restore the plan.
上六 困于葛藟，于臲卼，曰動悔。有悔，征吉。 You are tied up by soft vines on ground that will not stay still. Name the fear of moving, then move anyway: going brings good fortune.
You are tied up by soft vines on ground that will not stay still. Name the fear of moving, then move anyway: going brings good fortune.
When it appears
- The resources are goneMoney, time, or goodwill has been spent down to the shape of the container. The question is not how to refill it quickly, but what still holds.
- Your voice is not landingYou are explaining yourself and no one is taking it. The judgment says this is a condition of the moment, not a failure of your argument.
- Obligation is the obstacleA duty, a title, or someone else's schedule is what stands between you and movement. The golden chariot blocks the road it is supposed to provide.
In love and work
Love
In a relationship reading, 困 often points to a period where both people are depleted and neither has the words to fix it. The line about the empty house is not a prediction of loss; it is a warning against testing the other person's patience as proof of love.
If you are single and asking about someone, the hexagram asks whether you are trying to draw water from a lake that is already dry. The honest move is usually to stop explaining and let time show what is actually there.
Work
At work, 困 describes the project that has lost its budget, its sponsor, or its audience while the obligations remain. The useful question is not “how do I sell this?” but “what is the smallest true thing I can still deliver?”
The moving fourth line is common here: help exists but is slow, and status is the thing slowing it down. Do not read the delay as a refusal. Keep the request alive and keep the shape of the work.
Questions
Is Hexagram 47 a good or a bad hexagram?
Neither, in the way the text uses the terms. 困 names a difficult condition and then gives a condition for coming through it: stay true, act without an audience, and do not lead with argument. It is closer to “a hard season with a discipline” than to a bad omen.
What does it mean when 困 is the answer to a question?
The question is usually being asked at the point where the external supports have already gone. The text turns attention from the missing resource to what you can still hold: a decision, a duty, a shape of work. It rarely advises a bold new move.
What are the moving lines?
In the coin method, each throw produces a line that is old yin, young yin, young yang, or old yang. Old lines are moving: they change into their opposite and produce a second, relating hexagram. The moving line is the one to read first.
How do I cast this hexagram myself?
Hold a question, throw three coins six times, and record each result from the bottom line up. Two heads and one tail is yang; two tails and one head is yin; three heads or three tails is a moving line. The cast tool on this site does the same thing with six virtual throws.