謙 → 坎
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5).
Line 2
六二 鳴謙。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Modesty that comes to expression. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 3
九三 勞謙君子。有終吉。
Nine in the third place means: A superior man of modesty and merit Carries things to conclusion. Good fortune.
Line 5
六五 不富以其鄰。利用侵伐。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: No boasting of wealth before one's neighbor. It is favorable to attack with force. Nothing that would not further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
懸狟素餐，食非其任；失望遠民，實勞我心。
The hanging bat feeds without working; eating what is not its due. Disappointing the distant folk; it truly wearies my heart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain in modesty, but here a creature hangs idle, eating without earning its keep — 懸狟素餐, a badger suspended and fed for nothing. This echoes the Shijing phrase 'eating without working,' a criticism of the parasitic official. The people in distant regions lose hope, and the ruler's heart is truly burdened. From Modesty to The Abysmal, water plunges into water — doubled danger, the pit that leads only to another pit. The verse diagnoses the peril of a state where undeserving officials drain resources while the frontier populace despairs. Modesty's virtue of 'leveling the excess to fill the deficit' is precisely what has failed here: the excess feeds parasites while the distant people starve. The Abysmal's danger is the consequence of this inversion.
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