井 → 坎
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
Line 3
九三 井渫不食。為我心惻。可用汲。王明。並受其福。
Nine in the third place means: The well is cleaned, but no one drinks from it. This is my heart's sorrow, For one might draw from it. If the king were clear-minded, Good fortune might be enjoyed in common.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
炙魚銅斗，張伺夜鼠。不忍香味，機發為祟。祟在頭頸，筰不得去。
Broiling fish in a bronze pot, waiting in ambush for the night rat. Unable to resist the fragrant smell, the trap springs and becomes the bane. The bane strikes at head and neck; the snare cannot be removed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well's depth conceals what lies within — and here that concealment becomes a trap. Roasting fish in a bronze pot, one sets a snare and watches for the night rat. The rat cannot resist the fragrant smell; the mechanism springs and strikes its head and neck, tangled so tightly it cannot escape. The imagery is vivid and mechanical: bait, trigger, and snare. Greed for what smells delicious delivers the creature into the trap. From The Well to The Abysmal, water upon water doubles the danger. The well's contained depth becomes Kan's bottomless pit: what once nourished now ensnares, and the creature that reaches in for sustenance finds itself caught in peril upon peril.
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