本文旨在詮釋《周易‧困卦》之古經。文分五節：壹、古經原文及意譯。所錄之原文以通行本為據，並以帛本參校。譯文注重卦爻辭間上下文意之關聯性，由之顯示本卦之主題，在言一貴族人物於待聘、赴聘之歷程中所遭遇之困境及其因應之方式。貳、釋卦構。坎下兌上為本卦之卦構。本文引據相關他卦之卦辭爻辭，以說明於本卦中，坎體有困陷之義，兌體有解脫之義；從而指出，本卦之要點，在言處困、脫困之道。叁、釋辭構。本卦之卦辭爻辭以貞辭及斷辭為構成元素。貞辭乃當事人因困而發問之辭，斷辭乃揲卦者占筮後提供之解答。貞辭及斷辭間，則以意象及聲音兩種方式相互聯結。肆、釋詞義。解釋本卦中十八條語詞之義。其中如亨、享兩字之區別，臀、劓刖、臲卼諸詞之確義，與酒、蒺蔾、金車、葛藟等物之象徵義，於解釋本卦經文均有關鍵作用。伍、釋卦理。本卦顯示上古時期屯邅困頓之客觀氛圍及卦中當事人自強不息之主觀精神。而其人能先迷後得，端賴於占筮之啟示：處困脫困之道，在於守身俟命、見幾而作。又本卦有反向思考之特徵，此為辯證法之雛型。

The purport of this treatise is to explicate the original Canon of ＂Zhŏu Yì‧Kùn Guà＂ (means, Hexagram for Oppression of the Divination Book). The treatise is composed of five sections. Section 1. The Original Canon of ＂Kùn Guà＂ and its vernacular translation: The canon is adopted from the received text, and revised with the Silk text. Stressing the interrelationship of all the statements in the hexagram, the treatise aims at to demonstrate that the theme of the hexagram is a description of a process that an aristocrat awaits a monarch’s invitation and then accept it, and of the ways he is confined in difficult situation and finally goes through them. Section 2. An explication of the constitution of the hexagram: The inner trigram Kǎn and outer trigram Duì constitute the hexagram. Quoting some statements from other related hexagram as proof, in this hexagram, Kǎn is interpreted as getting cornered, and Duì is liberation. Hence it follows that the main idea in ＂Kùn Guà 「is to manifest the methods of persisting through misery and of freeing oneself from it. Section 3. An explication of the constitution of the statements: The statements in the hexagram can be divided into two parts; that is, the queries and the judgements. By the former, the doubts about hardship are raised; by the latter, the ways out of them are offered after divination. There are two clues linking up the queries and the judgements. One is their image relation, and the other is their metrical relation. Section 4. An explication of the significance of the terms: Meaning of 18 terms in the hexagram are expounded. Some of them play critical parts in understanding of the statements, for instance, the difference between Hēng(亨) and Xiăng(享), the denotation of T n(臀), Yì n Yuè(劓刖), Niè Wù(臲卼), and the symbolism of alcohol, metaled vehicle, puncture vine, kudzu vine. Section 5. An explication of the thought in the hexagram: What are shown in the hexagram are the objective world full of difficulties in remote ages and the above-mentioned aristocrat with energetic subjective spirit. The reason why he can return to the correct path after going astray lies in the inspiration he drew from the divination. The inspiration is that that one who is able to restrain oneself, to get ready to be appointed, and then to time his rise opportunely, can persist through the difficulties and get rid of them. Besides, reverse thinking is a trait of the hexagram, and it is an embryonic from of dialectic.