乾 → 井
Hexagram 1: The Creative → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 潛龍勿用。
Nine at the beginning means: Hidden dragon. Do not act.
Line 4
九四 或躍在淵。无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Wavering flight over the depths. No blame.
Line 6
上九 亢龍有悔。
Nine at the top means: Arrogant dragon will have cause to repent.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鸑鳴岐山，龜應幽淵。男女媾精，萬物化生。文王以成，為周開庭。
The luan sings on Mount Qi; the tortoise answers from the hidden deep. Male and female join essence; the ten thousand things come into being. King Wen accomplished this, founding the court of Zhou.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
The sacred yueyue bird sings on Mount Qi; the turtle responds from the deep. Male and female essences unite, and the ten thousand things come into being. Through this King Wen established the foundations of the Zhou dynasty. The yueyue is a variant of the phoenix whose cry on Mount Qi, according to the Guoyu, heralded the Zhou's rise. The turtle's response from the depths mirrors the Well hexagram's own image: water drawn up through wood from the aquifer below. From Creative to The Well, this verse traces cosmic creation through the pairing of heaven and earth — bird above, turtle below — culminating in dynastic foundation. The well never moves yet serves all who draw from it, just as Wen's virtue became an inexhaustible source.
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