Hexagram 29

Kǎn

The Abysmal Water

Upper Trigram

Kǎn

WaterAbysmal

ElementWaterDirectionWestFamilySecond SonQualitiesdangerous, flowing, fluid

Lower Trigram

Kǎn

WaterAbysmal

ElementWaterDirectionWestFamilySecond SonQualitiesdangerous, flowing, fluid

Classical Texts

The Judgment

習坎。有孚。維心亨。行有尚。

The Image

水洊至習坎。君子以常德行,習教事。

The Lines

Line 1

初六 習坎。入于坎窞。凶。

Line 2

九二 坎有險。求小得。

Line 3

六三 來之坎坎。險且枕。入于坎窞。勿用。

Line 4

六四 樽酒簋貳。用缶。納約自牖。終无咎。

Line 5

九五 坎不盈。祗既平。无咎。

Line 6

上六 係用徽纆。寘于叢棘。三歲不得。凶。

Snow Storm Steam Boat

Snow Storm Steam Boat

Turner, Unknown

The Deep

Turner's brushwork dissolves a steamboat into swirling chaos—sea, snow, and storm merge until no boundary holds. The paddle-steamer barely registers at the composition's center, engulfed by water and wind that spiral in violent vortex. He painted this around 1842 after reportedly having himself lashed to a ship's mast during a storm to witness the experience directly. The painting offers no safe vantage point; viewers inhabit the maelstrom itself, surrounded by forces that obliterate orientation. Water and vapor erase the line between sea and sky.

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Zhou Dynasty diviners called this configuration Kan (坎), the Abysmal—Water (Kan) doubled, danger upon danger. The character depicts a pit or chasm, a hole one falls into repeatedly. When this hexagram appeared in divination, it signaled not single crisis but serial peril, situations where escaping one danger leads directly into the next. Turner's storm captures this precisely: each wave conquered reveals another rising behind it, exhaustion compounding as the ordeal extends. Ancient texts describe Kan as "water flowing without filling," perpetual passage through what cannot be grasped or controlled. Turner's vortex of sea, snow, and steam depicts a paddle-steamer caught in a violent storm off Harwich. The swirling composition places the viewer within the chaos of water and wind, with the vessel barely visible at the center. This captures the hexagram's theme of the Abysmal—repeated danger, water upon water, the need to flow through peril rather than resist it. The Judgment text states: "The Abysmal repeated. If you are sincere, you have success in your heart, and whatever you do succeeds." Sincerity here means flowing like water rather than rigidly resisting—the steamboat survives by moving with the waves' force, not against it. Song Dynasty commentary notes that water always finds its way downward through obstacles; faced with repeated danger, one must adopt water's patient persistence. Turner's composition lacks solid ground or stable reference—everything flows and churns, yet the vessel at center maintains forward momentum. The painting teaches dangerous passage, not safe harbor. The Image Text offers unexpected counsel: "Water flows on uninterruptedly and reaches its goal. The superior person walks in lasting virtue and carries on the business of teaching." Constancy through repetition becomes the method—water wears stone through persistent movement, not force. Turner painted tempests throughout his career, returning obsessively to the theme of nature's overwhelming power. In the I-Ching's sequence, the Abysmal follows Preponderance of the Great: after critical mass strains structures (28), one enters sustained danger requiring fluid adaptation (29). The storm will not abate. The only way is through.

Yilin: Forest of Changes

From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 29 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.

Yilin artwork for Hexagram 29
有黃鳥足,歸呼季玉。從我睢陽,可辟刀兵。與福俱行,有命久長。

There is a yellow bird with legs; it calls, summoning Jiyu. Follow me to Suiyang; there one may avoid war and weapons. Walking together with blessings; life shall be long.

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Water upon water, the doubled abyss turns inward upon itself. A golden-footed bird appears — evoking the Yellow Bird of the Shijing — and calls out for Jiyu, summoning a companion home. Follow me to Suiyang, the verse counsels, where one may avoid the blades of war. Walk alongside blessings, and life shall be long. Suiyang is the hometown of Jiao Gan, the Yilin's own author; this self-referential note grounds the oracle in the diviner's personal geography. From The Abysmal returning to itself, the message is that within repeated danger lies a fixed center — a home one can return to, a place where even the abyss yields safety to those who know where to stand.

中文注释

水洊至,重坎自照,坎歸坎——險之中定而不移。有金足之鳥(或黃鳥),呼喚季玉歸來。從我至睢陽,可避刀兵之患;與福俱行,有命久長。睢陽為焦氏易林作者焦贛之故里,此自指之筆將占辭錨定於卜者個人之地理。從坎歸坎,重險之中自有定處——可歸之家、可立之地,即深淵之中亦可為知其所立者提供庇護。常德行、習教事,定於險中即是脫險之道。