无妄 → 坎
Hexagram 25: Innocence → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 无妄。往吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Innocent behavior brings good fortune.
Line 2
六二 不耕穫。不菑畬。則利有攸往。
Six in the second place means: If one does not count on the harvest while plowing, Nor on the use of the ground while clearing it, It furthers one to undertake something.
Line 4
九四 可貞。无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: He who can be persevering Remains without blame.
Line 6
上九 无妄。行有眚。无攸利。
Nine at the top means: Innocent action brings misfortune. Nothing furthers.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
兩母十子，轉息無已。五乳百雛，騂駮驪駒。
Two mothers, ten offspring; turning and breeding without cease. Five nursings, a hundred hatchlings; red, dappled, black, and bay colts.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Two mothers and ten young, ceaselessly turning and multiplying. Five teats and a hundred chicks — red, dappled, and black-maned colts milling together. The verse teems with procreative abundance, each line adding creatures and colors in relentless profusion. From Innocence to The Abysmal, the transformation juxtaposes fecundity with peril. Kan's doubled water rushes forward without pause — water upon water, danger compounding danger. The relentless breeding mirrors this ceaseless flow: life multiplying without rest carries its own hazard. Too many mouths, too many offspring, too many colors to manage. The innocence of natural increase, unchecked, becomes the abyss of overextension where abundance itself drowns.
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