in distress, mound
邛 centers on a state of hardship or a raised landform: being in distress or a mound. The two meanings may not share a single clear conceptual center, but both relate to something elevated or pressed down.
The exact historical development of 邛 is uncertain. It visually combines 工 and ⻏, but the original semantic and phonetic roles of these components are not clearly established.
Picture a worker (工) standing beside a mound (⻏, like a hill) in distress, perhaps exhausted from labor.
For キョウ, imagine the worker on the mound shouting 'kyou!' (like 'kyo!') in distress: kyou -> キョウ.