蠱 → 坎
Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
Line 3
九三 幹父之蠱。小有悔。无大咎。
Nine in the third place means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. There will be a little remorse. No great blame.
Line 5
六五 幹父之蠱。用譽。
Six in the fifth place means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. One meets with praise.
Line 6
上九 不事王侯。高尚其事。
Nine at the top means: He does not serve kings and princes, Sets himself higher goals.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
褒后生虵，垂老盲微；側跌哀公，酉滅黃離。
Lady Bao bore a serpent; aged and blind, the light fades. Duke Ai stumbles and topples -- in the west, the yellow Li is extinguished.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath the mountain stirs ancient curses, and the transformation plunges into doubled water — the Abysmal's repeated peril. The consort of Bao gave birth to a serpent; old age brings blindness and feebleness. Duke Ai stumbles and falls sideways as the golden bird is extinguished at the hour of You. The verse alludes to the myth of Bao Si's origin: according to tradition, dragon saliva from the Xia dynasty transformed into a lizard that impregnated a palace servant, producing the child who became the beauty Bao Si, consort of King You of Zhou, whose infatuation destroyed the Western Zhou. From Work on the Decayed to the Abysmal, ancient corruption resurfaces as present danger. Water upon water — peril repeated — reflects how ancestral curses compound through generations when left unaddressed.
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