坎 → 蠱
Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
Line 3
六三 來之坎坎。險且枕。入于坎窞。勿用。
Six in the third place means: Forward and backward, abyss on abyss. In danger like this, pause at first and wait, Otherwise you will fall into a pit in the abyss. Do not act this way.
Line 5
九五 坎不盈。祗既平。无咎。
Nine in the fifth place means: The abyss is not filled to overflowing, It is filled only to the rim. No blame.
Line 6
上六 係用徽纆。寘于叢棘。三歲不得。凶。
Six at the top means: Bound with cords and ropes, Shut in between thorn-hedged prison walls: For three years one does not find the way. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
深水難涉，塗難至轂。牛罷不進，濘陷我疾。
Deep water, hard to ford; the mud reaches the axle hubs. The ox is spent and will not advance; the mire traps me in affliction.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon water, every step sinks deeper. The river runs too deep to ford, the mud reaches the axle hubs, and the exhausted ox refuses to advance. Mire traps both beast and traveler in spreading affliction. Each line intensifies: water too deep, mud too thick, ox too tired, and now illness sets in. From The Abysmal to Work on the Decayed, wind stirs beneath the mountain — the gentle infiltration that begins to restore what has rotted. The verse captures the nadir before renovation: everything is stuck, bogged, and failing. Yet decay itself is the precondition for renewal, as the wind beneath the mountain slowly loosens what the mud has seized.
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