Kuai / Break-through (Resoluteness)

above:Tui The Joyous, Lake
below:Ch'ien The Creative, Heaven

The fourth [nine], undivided, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped, and who walks slowly and with difficulty. (If he could act) like a sheep led (after its companions), occasion for repentance would disappear. But though he hear these words, he will not believe them.

Line 4 is not in the center, nor in an odd place, appropriate to it as undivided. Its subject therefore will not be at rest, nor able to do anything to accomplish the idea of the hexagram. He is symbolized by a culprit, who, according to the ancient and modern custom of the Chinese courts, has been bastinadoed until he presents the appearance in the Text. Alone he can do nothing; if he could follow others, like a sheep led along, he might accomplish something, but he will not listen to advice.