解 → 井
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5).
Line 3
六三 負且乘。致寇至。貞吝。
Six in the third place means: If a man carries a burden on his back And nonetheless rides in a carriage, He thereby encourages robbers to draw near. Perseverance leads to humiliation.
Line 4
九四 解而拇。朋至斯孚。
Nine in the fourth place means: Deliver yourself from your great toe. Then the companion comes, And him you can trust.
Line 5
六五 君子維有解。吉。有孚于小人。
Six in the fifth place means: If only the superior man can deliver himself, It brings good fortune. Thus he proves to inferior men that he is in earnest.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
和氣所在，物皆不朽。聖賢居位，國无凶咎。
Where harmonious virtue resides, nothing decays or perishes. A sage and worthy man holds the throne; the state is free of misfortune and calamity.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water settles into water drawn up through wood — the nourishing constancy of the Well. Where harmonious energy resides, nothing decays. Sages and worthies occupy their proper positions, and the state suffers no misfortune. The verse describes governance as an inexhaustible well: when the right people are in the right places, the source of communal nourishment never runs dry. From Deliverance to The Well, the thunderstorm's release becomes the steady, reliable supply of water that serves everyone without moving from its place. The well does not go to the village; the village comes to the well. True deliverance establishes not freedom of movement but permanence of provision.
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