Hexagram for Obstruction

It marks a serious obstacle that calls for a new approach.

The Jian hexagram has six solid or broken lines, with water above a mountain in its image. In divination, its judgment—the text's advice for the figure—treats danger as something to recognize rather than overpower.

The Yijing (Book of Changes) tradition is conventionally dated to around 1000 BCE. A Zhouyi manuscript—an early text in that tradition—was copied at Mawangdui, an ancient Chinese burial site, about 175 BCE; its wording differs from the later standard text.

What should you do when it appears?

Pause, reassess, and look for help or another route.

The commentary attached to the standard text treats stopping in danger as wise. Later readers also draw advice about retreat, detours, preparation, and allies. A reading that follows changing lines—the marks treated as shifting into another figure—may give a different emphasis.

Line-structure readings also connect Jian with Opposition and Deliverance. These are interpretation links among the six-line figures, not visual similarities between the printed signs.