益 → 坎
Hexagram 42: Increase → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).
Line 1
初九 利用為大作。元吉无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: It furthers one to accomplish great deeds. Supreme good fortune. No blame.
Line 2
六二 或益之十朋之龜。弗克違。永貞吉。王用享于帝吉。
Six in the second place means: Someone does indeed increase him; Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Constant perseverance brings good fortune. The king presents him before God. Good fortune.
Line 6
上九 莫益之。或擊之。立心勿恆。凶。
Nine at the top means: He brings increase to no one. Indeed, someone even strikes him. He does not keep his heart constantly steady. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
翕翕䡘䡘，實墜崩顛。滅其命身。
Rattling and jolting, crashing and toppling, truly plunging and falling. The body and life are destroyed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind and thunder bestow increase, but the transformation leads to doubled water — the perilous abyss of the Abysmal, pit upon pit. Pressed and crowded together, everything truly collapses and tumbles down, destroying both life and body. The verse is brutally compressed: gathering pressure, sudden collapse, total annihilation. There is no rescue, no gradual decline — just the moment when the structure gives way entirely. From Increase to the Abysmal, the transformation is one of abundance cascading into danger. Water piled upon water creates not a deeper well but a flood. What was meant as increase overwhelms every container, and the excess that should have enriched instead drowns its recipient. The doubled abyss admits no foothold.
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