井 → 離
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 井泥不食。舊井无禽。
Six at the beginning means: One does not drink the mud of the well. No animals come to an old well.
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 4
六四 井甃无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: The well is being lined. No blame.
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
高飛不視，貪叨所在。臭腐為患，自害躬身。
Flying high yet blind to what lies below; greed fixes upon what is there. Rot and stench become the ruin; he brings harm upon his own body.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well rewards those who look downward with care — but this bird flies high and never looks down, fixated only on what it craves. Rotting filth becomes its undoing, and it harms its own body. The image is of a raptor so absorbed in hunting that it dives into carrion, poisoning itself. Greed for what appears desirable but is actually putrid destroys from within. From The Well to The Clinging, doubled fire illuminates with merciless clarity. The well's cool depth offers honest sustenance, but Li's brilliant light exposes the difference between true nourishment and rotting illusion. What clings to corruption is consumed by the very fire that reveals it.
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