What this change means
Earth over earth: the third and fifth lines move, the mountain and the water both lie down flat, and Held Back becomes 2 Passivity. The fifth line leads. Even in great hardship your conviction holds, and that inner strength draws help. The third line sends you home for a while, away from the wall and among those who care about you. Together they ask for strength without force. The resulting hexagram makes that explicit: this isn't the time to take the initiative. Let others guide you, and keep working on your projects patiently. That can be hard for someone with firm goals, but holding your conviction doesn't require pushing it. Rest among your own people, receive the help that arrives, and let someone else set the pace for a while. Yielding now is how your steadiness gets through.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- Line 5 of 39 Held Back
You have great conviction and clear goals, which let you keep going despite the obstacles. Your inner strength will draw help to you.
Great hardship: friends arrive.
- Line 3 of 39 Held Back
The right thing now is to step back from the obstacles and return to normal conditions, with the people who love you, until the time to act comes.
Going: hardship. Coming: a return.
- The judgment of 39 Held Back
Every time you advance, something blocks you, forcing you to stop, step back, and look for help from like-minded people who give you their support. That way you'll get past the obstacles one by one until the final victory.
The southwest is favorable; the northeast is not. It is favorable to see the great person. Constancy brings good fortune.
- The judgment of 2 Passivity
This is not the time to take the initiative to achieve things. It's better to let others guide you and to keep at your projects with patience.
Great success. The constancy of a mare is favorable. The noble person has somewhere to go: going ahead, they lose the way; following behind, they find someone to guide them. It is favorable to find friends in the southwest and to lose them in the northeast. Calm constancy brings good fortune.
The trigrams
The way back
2 Passivity → 39 Held Backlines 3 and 5
Other transformations of Held Back
- 5Inactionlines 1 and 2
- 3Initial Obstacleslines 1 and 3
- 29Waterlines 2 and 3
- 49Renewallines 1 and 4
- 28Excesseslines 2 and 4
- 45Meetinglines 3 and 4
- 36Darknesslines 1 and 5
- 46Going Uplines 2 and 5
- 62Success in Small Matterslines 4 and 5
- 37The Tribelines 1 and 6
- 57Gentlenesslines 2 and 6
- 20Observinglines 3 and 6
- 33Leaving Behindlines 4 and 6
- 52Abidinglines 5 and 6
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.