井 → 蠱
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 5, 6).
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.
Line 6
上六 井收勿幕。有孚元吉。
Six at the top means: One draws from the well Without hindrance. It is dependable. Supreme good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
无事招禍，自取災殃。畜狼養虎，必見賊傷。
Without cause he invites disaster, bringing calamity upon himself. Raising wolves, rearing tigers; one is certain to suffer the wounds of these thieves.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well sustains what is placed around it — but here what is nurtured turns predatory. Inviting disaster without cause, bringing calamity upon oneself: raising wolves and rearing tigers guarantees that one will suffer their bite. The proverb '畜狼養虎' warns against fostering dangers within one's own household, a theme deeply resonant with Gu's meaning of internal corruption. From The Well to Work on the Decayed, wind stirs beneath the mountain where rot has set in. The well's indiscriminate nourishment, poured into the wrong vessels, breeds the very parasites that corrode the structure from within. Gu demands that decay be confronted before it consumes the host.
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