坎 → 中孚
Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water → Hexagram 61: Inner Truth
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
南行棗園，惡虎畏班。執火銷金，使我無患。
Going south to the jujube garden; the fierce tiger fears the markings. Wielding fire to melt metal; it ensures I am free from harm.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon water, the traveler heads south into a grove of jujube trees. A fierce tiger lurks there, but it fears the spotted pattern — perhaps the markings of a larger predator or the dappled shadows that confuse its vision. Fire is brought to bear against metal, melting and refining, and through this process the threat is neutralized. The verse pairs natural danger (the tiger in the grove) with alchemical resolution (fire dissolving metal). From The Abysmal to Inner Truth, wind stirs above the lake, and the gentleman deliberates on justice with compassion. The fire that melts metal is Inner Truth's penetrating sincerity: genuine conviction, applied with precision, transforms even the hardest opposition into something workable.
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