Oppression
The Lake Run Dry
In exhaustion nothing said is believed and only conduct carries weight: endure, don't argue.
Oppression sets Dui, The Joyous, Lake, over Kan, The Abysmal, Water, and the Image reads the water as having sunk away beneath the lake, so that there is no water in the lake. The Judgment allows that success is still possible, that the great man brings good fortune and is without blame, and warns that when one has something to say it will not be believed: in a time of exhaustion, explanation carries no weight and conduct alone does. The Image has the superior man stake his life on following his will, the constraint being outward while the will remains his own.
Light
Signifies endurance and integrity under constraint, the strength that holds when outward means have failed; adversity that tests character and is survived rather than argued away.
Shadow
Can represent exhaustion, poverty, confinement and going unheard; bitterness and complaint, or a struggle against circumstance that only deepens the difficulty.
