Hexagram Reading Full Guide: The Hardest Part of Life Isn’t Escaping Hardship — It’s Letting Go of the Past

1. What is the Hexagram of Deliverance?

Deliverance (雷水解) is the 40th hexagram of the *I Ching (Book of Changes)*, with Zhen / The Arousing above and Kan / The Abysmal below. Thunder rumbles overhead, rain falls beneath; as thunder and rain interact, pent-up stagnation dissipates, and all things unfold and grow. Thus "Jie (Deliverance)" means release, liberation, and dispersion.

While the Hexagram of Obstruction (水山蹇) represents overwhelming hardship and being trapped between advance and retreat, Deliverance marks the passing of difficulties and the loosening of a tight situation. The shift from Obstruction to Deliverance is a process from hardship to ease, from tension to relaxation.

Yet this is also where Deliverance is most often misunderstood: many people think "deliverance" means everything is finished and they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. That is not the case. What Deliverance actually addresses is: *after* hardship is lifted, how do you face yourself and start anew?

It is like after the rain stops and the sky clears: you cannot keep walking around in wet clothes. You need to change out of them, wash the mud off your body, and only then move forward. Otherwise, even if you have escaped the困境, your heart will still feel soaked through.

The hardest part of life is never falling into a pit. It is whether you can travel light after climbing out of one.

2. The Core Wisdom of Deliverance

The Hexagram Judgment of Deliverance states: "It furthers to go southwest. If there is no place to go, turning back brings good fortune. If there is a place to go, setting out early brings good fortune."

This line has three layers of meaning:

First, "It furthers to go southwest" — move toward level ground, do not climb higher just yet. In the Later Heaven Trigrams, the southwest corresponds to Kun / The Receptive, which symbolizes earth, compliance, and gentleness. This means that when hardship has just lifted, do not rush into grand moves or aim for instant success. First find a stable footing, steady yourself, and only then think about growth.

It is like someone recovering from a serious illness: they cannot run a marathon right away. They start with congee, take short walks, and rebuild their strength first. Pushing too hard will only make them fall ill again.

Second, "If there is no place to go, turning back brings good fortune" — when you have nowhere to go, returning is auspicious. Fresh out of a困境, with no clear direction or path ahead, do not force yourself to charge forward. Step back, pause, and return to your own rhythm first.

Many people’s first move after escaping hardship is to "find a new direction right away," terrified that pausing will make them fall back in. But in reality, pausing, thinking things through, and returning to yourself is what matters most. If your direction is wrong, the faster you go, the more dangerous it is.

Third, "If there is a place to go, setting out early brings good fortune" — if you do have a clear direction, leave early, do not delay. If you have already figured out where you are going, set out sooner rather than later. When hardship has passed and opportunities are clear, hesitation becomes a liability. The earlier you start, the smoother the journey will be.

Thus the wisdom of Deliverance boils down to one word: timing. Pause when you should pause, move when you should move — the key is not to mix the two up.

3. Why Is It Harder *After* Escaping Hardship?

Many people have had this experience: they hold up well during hardship, bearing one thing after another and gritting their teeth through it. But once the trouble passes and the pressure lifts, they suddenly collapse entirely.

Why does this happen?

Because during hardship, you are in "fight mode": your focus is razor-sharp, all your energy goes toward dealing with the problem, and you have no time to think about anything else. Once the matter is over and fight mode switches off, all the suppressed emotions, exhaustion, and grievances flood to the surface all at once.

This is the first lesson Deliverance teaches: the hardship may be over, but what it left behind is still with you.

It might be a victim mentality, feeling like the whole world owes you. It might be hyper-vigilance, seeing everyone as a threat. It might be an inability to trust again, afraid of getting hurt a second time. Or it might be a desperate need to prove yourself, determined to earn back double what you lost.

These are all the "unresolved" parts: the situation is over, but you have not let it go in your heart.

The "deliverance" of this hexagram is not just about escaping external hardship — it is about untying the knots in your heart. Others can help you with external troubles, but the knots in your heart only you can untie.

True liberation is not that no one hurts you anymore. It is that you no longer let past hurts hurt you.

4. Three Lessons from Deliverance for Modern People

1. Do Not Make Major Decisions Right After Climbing Out of a Pit

When hardship has just lifted, people often fall into two extreme mindsets: one is "I’m never pushing myself again, this is as good as it gets," and the other is "I’m going to take back everything I lost."

The first is too cautious, the second too reckless. Neither is right.

When you have just climbed out of a pit, your judgment is off. You are still seeing things from the bottom of the pit — everything looks like another pit, or everything looks like a lifeline. Making major decisions at this point will either make you miss opportunities or fall into a new pit.

The best approach is: take a breather first, let yourself return to a normal state, and only then make decisions. There is no rush.

2. Letting Go Is Not Forgiving Others — It Is Sparing Yourself

Many people cannot let go of the past because they think "letting go means letting the other person off easy" or "letting go means admitting I lost."

But the "deliverance" this hexagram speaks of is not about forgiving anyone, or making peace with anyone. Deliverance is freeing *yourself* from that incident.

It is like when your foot gets stuck in a mud pit: you just pull it out and move on. Why would you pick a fight with the mud pit? The mud pit was just there; you stepped into it yourself. Pull your foot out and go your way — the mud pit stays a mud pit, and that is enough.

People who cannot let go are not being hurt by others anymore — they are hurting themselves by bringing up the past over and over again.

Letting go is not forgiving the other person. It is sparing yourself.

3. Only Traveling Light Lets You Go Far

The ultimate wisdom of Deliverance is one word: loosen.

During Obstruction, you have to stay tight — without that tension, you cannot make it through. During Deliverance, you have to loosen up — without that looseness, you cannot go far. Stay tight for too long, and you will break.

Many people, after escaping hardship, become more anxious, more driven, and more clinging than before. Because they are scared — scared of falling back in — so they grab onto more things to feel secure.

But the more you cling, the more tired you get; the more tired you get, the easier it is to fall back in.

People who truly walk out of hardship do not gain more — they let go of more. They do not become stronger — they become lighter.

On the road of life, those who go far are never the ones carrying the most weight. They are the ones who can travel light.

5. Final Thoughts

Deliverance is not about "how to escape hardship" — that is what Obstruction is for.

Deliverance is about: after you have walked out of hardship, how do you get along with yourself, how do you say goodbye to the past, and how do you set out again.

In our lifetime, we will fall into many pits, and climb out of many pits. But what truly determines how far you go is not how many pits you have fallen into, or how many times you have climbed out.

It is whether, every time you climb out, you can brush the dust off your clothes, leave the past in the past, and keep moving forward, traveling light.

True liberation is not never facing hardship again. It is knowing you can make it through when hardship comes, and knowing how to walk well once you have made it through.

This is the true meaning of the Hexagram of Deliverance.