大畜 → 井
Hexagram 26: Great Taming → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
白鵠衘珠,夜食為明。膏潤渥優,國歲年豐。中子來同,見惡不凶。
The white swan holds a pearl in its beak; by night it feeds and gives off light. Its rich moisture is bountiful and fine; the year's harvest is plentiful. The middle son arrives in harmony; seeing ill, he meets no misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven stored within the mountain gives way to water above wind — the Well. A white swan carries a pearl in its beak, feeding by its light through the night. Rich moisture spreads abundantly; the year's harvest is plentiful. The middle son arrives in harmony, and encountering what seems evil brings no actual harm. The luminous pearl is the well's deep sustenance made visible — hidden nourishment rising to the surface. The white swan, an auspicious creature, bears this light upward. From Great Taming to the Well, the mountain's stored heaven becomes the inexhaustible water drawn up through wood. What was accumulated in the mountain now circulates as communal sustenance. The well never empties when its source runs deep.
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