K'un / Oppression (Exhaustion)

above:Tui The Joyous, Lake
below:K'an The Abysmal, Water

The first [six], 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).

The symbolism of 'buttocks' is rather a favorite of the Duke of Kau; - each to their own taste. The poor subject of line 1 sitting on a mere stump, which affords him no shelter, is indeed badly off. The line is at the bottom of the trigram indicating peril, and 4, which is its proper correlate, is so circumstanced so as not to be able to render it help; hence comes the unfavorable auspice. 'Three years' is used, as often, for a long time.