坎 → 解
Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 5).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
寒露所降，凌制堅冰，草木瘡傷，花落葉亡。
Cold dew descends; frost commands hard ice. Plants and trees are wounded; flowers fall, leaves perish.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon water, cold descends and freezes everything solid. Cold dew falls and frost dominates, forming hard ice that wounds all growing things. Flowers drop, leaves perish, and the vegetable world lies in ruin. The verse reads as a pure seasonal catastrophe: autumn's killing frost arrives and nothing survives. From The Abysmal to Deliverance, thunder and rain should bring release — the storm that breaks the tension and washes everything clean. Yet this verse captures the moment just before deliverance, when destruction is total and no relief is in sight. The frost must complete its work before the thunderstorm of spring can restore what was frozen. Deliverance requires the winter to run its full course.
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