Hexagram 34 · Line 6
Great Power — 上九
Da Zhuang · Shang Jiu
上九 · Shang Jiu
The Line
A goat butts against a hedge: it cannot go back, it cannot go forward. Nothing is furthering. If one notices the difficulty, that brings good fortune.
Interpretation
If one ventures too far forward, one comes to a dead point where one can go neither forward nor backward, and everything only serves to make the matter even more entangled. With such stubbornness one falls into insurmountable difficulties. If one recognizes the situation and does not want to continue, but calms down, then with time everything will become good again.