大畜 → 坎
Hexagram 26: Great Taming → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 有厲。利已。
Nine at the beginning means: Danger is at hand. It furthers one to desist.
Line 3
九三 良馬逐。利艱貞。曰閑輿衛。利有攸往。
Nine in the third place means. A good horse that follows others. Awareness of danger, With perseverance, furthers. Practice chariot driving and armed defense daily. It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
Line 5
六五 豶豕之牙。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: The tusk of a gelded boar. Good fortune.
Line 6
上九 何天之衢。亨。
Nine at the top means: One attains the way of heaven. Success.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
天地閉塞，仁智隱伏。商旅不行，利深難得。
Heaven and earth are closed and blocked; the benevolent and the wise lie hidden. Merchants do not travel; profit is deep but hard to obtain.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven stored within the mountain becomes doubled water — the Abysmal. Heaven and earth are sealed shut; the wise and humane hide themselves away. Merchants cannot travel; profit lies deep and inaccessible. The verse directly quotes the I-Ching's own judgment on Hexagram 12 (Standstill): 'Heaven and earth do not mingle.' Yet the target here is not Standstill but the Abysmal — water upon water, peril upon peril. From Great Taming to the Abysmal, the mountain's stored heaven plunges into an abyss of repeated danger. What was accumulated has no outlet; the wise know to withdraw, merchants know to stay home. The verse counsels patience in the face of compounded obstruction: the profit exists but cannot yet be reached.
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