井 → 謙
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 15: Modesty
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 5).
Line 2
九二 井谷射鮒。甕敝漏。
Nine in the second place means: At the wellhole one shoots fishes. The jug is broken and leaks.
Line 5
九五 井冽。寒泉食。
Nine in the fifth place means: In the well there is a clear, cold spring From which one can drink.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
安和泰山，福祐屢臻。雖有狼虎，不能危身。
Peaceful and secure as Mount Tai; blessings and protection arrive again and again. Though wolves and tigers lurk, they cannot endanger this body.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well provides quiet security, and here that security expands into serene stability. Peaceful as Mount Tai, blessings arrive repeatedly. Though wolves and tigers prowl nearby, they cannot endanger one's person. Mount Tai, the Eastern Sacred Mountain, symbolizes immovable authority and cosmic order. The verse pairs the well's steadfast nourishment with the mountain's unyielding presence: threats exist but cannot penetrate such grounded composure. From The Well to Modesty, a mountain hidden within the earth, the pattern deepens: true security comes not from towering above danger but from holding one's strength beneath the surface, where neither wolves nor tigers think to look.
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