坎 → 損
Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 習坎。入于坎窞。凶。
Six at the beginning means: Repetition of the Abysmal. In the abyss one falls into a pit. Misfortune.
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
后稷農功，富利我國。南畝治理，一室百子。
Houji's farming merit enriched and profited our state. The southern fields are well-tended; one household, a hundred children.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon water, yet agriculture transforms peril into prosperity. Lord Millet (Hou Ji), the ancestral patron of Zhou agriculture, brought his farming arts to enrich the nation. Southern fields are well managed, and from a single household springs a hundred sons — abundance in both harvest and progeny. The verse celebrates the civilizing power of systematic cultivation. From The Abysmal to Decrease, the mountain towers above the lake, and the gentleman restrains anger and curtails desire. Hou Ji's agricultural discipline is itself a form of decrease: trimming wildness into order, channeling chaotic water into irrigated furrows. The hundred sons born from one household embody how disciplined reduction of waste yields exponential increase.
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