睽 → 坎
Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 悔亡。喪馬勿逐自復。見惡人。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Remorse disappears. If you lose your horse, do not run after it; It will come back of its own accord. When you see evil people, Guard yourself against mistakes.
Line 4
九四 睽孤。遇元夫。交孚。厲无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Isolated through opposition, One meets a like-minded man With whom one can associate in good faith. Despite the danger, no blame.
Line 5
六五 悔亡。厥宗噬膚。往何咎。
Six in the fifth place means: Remorse disappears. The companion bites his way through the wrappings. If one goes to him, How could it be a mistake?
Line 6
上九 睽孤。見豕負塗。載鬼一車。先張之弧。後說之弧。匪寇婚媾。往遇雨則吉。
Nine at the top means: Isolated through opposition, One sees one's companion as a pig covered with dirt, As a wagon full of devils. First one draws a bow against him, then one lays the bow aside. He is not a robber; he will woo at the right time. As one goes, rain falls; then good fortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
耄老失明，聞善不從。自令顛沛，敗為咎殃。
Aged and blind, he has lost his sight; hearing what is good, he will not follow. He brings ruin upon himself; failure becomes his calamity.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above the lake, and an aged figure has gone blind, yet refuses good counsel. The verse depicts a ruler or elder grown senile — eyes darkened, ears closed — who hears wise advice but will not follow it. The result is self-inflicted downfall, a disaster born entirely of obstinacy. 'Old and blind' is both literal and metaphorical: the inability to perceive danger and the refusal to accept guidance combine into a single fatal posture. From Opposition to The Abysmal, water upon water, danger doubled. The transformation drives the point home: willful blindness does not merely maintain the current peril but plunges into a second abyss. One who refuses to see when shown the way falls not once but twice, each pit deeper than the last.
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