睽 → 井
Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 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 3
六三 見輿曳。其牛掣。其人天且劓。无初有終。
Six in the third place means: One sees the wagon dragged back, The oxen halted, A man's hair and nose cut off. Not a good beginning, but a good end.
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
井堙木刊，國多暴殘。秦王失戍，壞其太壇。
The well is choked, the trees are felled; the state is full of violence and ruin. The King of Qin lost his garrison; his great altar was destroyed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above the lake, and the infrastructure of civilization collapses. Wells are choked with debris, trees are felled to stumps, and the land is overrun by violence and cruelty. A king of Qin loses his garrison, and the great altar — the foundation of political and spiritual legitimacy — is destroyed. The well in the Yijing is the image of communal sustenance that serves all equally; when it is silted up and the timber cut, the community's lifeline is severed. From Opposition to The Well, water rises above the wood as the gentleman encourages the people through shared labor. The transformation from ruined well to functioning well is a call to restoration: the choked infrastructure must be dredged and rebuilt through collective effort, for the well cannot be moved — only renewed.
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