坎 → 未濟
Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
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.
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
據棘履危，跌刺為憂。夫婦不和，亂我良家。
Grasping thorns, treading on peril; pierced and pricked, a cause of worry. Husband and wife in discord; they bring chaos to my good household.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon water, every surface bristles with thorns. Clinging to brambles and treading upon danger, stumbling into spikes becomes the constant worry. Then the domestic sphere fractures: husband and wife cannot harmonize, and a good household is thrown into disorder. The verse connects external peril with internal discord — the thorns outside mirror the friction within. From The Abysmal to Before Completion, fire hovers above water without touching it, and the fox nearly crosses the river but wets its tail at the last moment. The failing marriage of this verse is Before Completion's essential condition: so close to resolution yet unable to achieve it. The thorns and the quarreling couple both stand at the threshold of order, unable to cross over.
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