坎 → 遯
Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water → Hexagram 33: Retreat
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 2
九二 坎有險。求小得。
Nine in the second place means: The abyss is dangerous. One should strive to attain small things only.
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 4
六四 樽酒簋貳。用缶。納約自牖。終无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: A jug of wine, a bowl of rice with it; Earthen vessels Simply handed in through the Window. There is certainly no blame in this.
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
匏瓜之德，宜繫不食。君子失與，官政懷憂。
The virtue of the bottle gourd -- fit to be hung, not to be eaten. The noble man loses his companions; official duties bring only worry.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon water, the worthy man hangs unused like a gourd. The bottle gourd possesses virtue, fit to be hung as an ornament but not to be eaten — echoing Confucius's lament in the Analects: 'Am I a bottle gourd? How can I hang here without being consumed?' The gentleman has lost his allies, and governance fills him with worry. Talent is present but unemployed; capacity exists but finds no outlet. From The Abysmal to Retreat, heaven withdraws above the mountain. The gourd hung and uneaten is the perfect emblem of retreat forced upon the capable: the sage is not absent from the world but suspended in it, visible yet unengaged, his gifts acknowledged but deliberately set aside.
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