井 → 咸
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 4).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鉛刀攻玉，堅不可得。單盡我力，齒為疾賊。
Attacking jade with a lead knife; the hardness cannot be overcome. Spending all my strength to exhaustion; the teeth become agents of affliction.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well requires proper tools — yet here the wrong instrument is forced upon an impossible task. A lead knife attempts to carve jade: the stone is too hard and the blade too soft. One exhausts all strength, and the teeth become agents of affliction. Lead against jade is a classical metaphor for mismatched effort: inadequate tools applied to worthy material, or unworthy talent attempting tasks beyond its capacity. From The Well to Influence, the lake rests upon the mountain, receptive and open. Xian's mutual responsiveness requires both parties to be of matching quality; the lead knife and jade have no affinity, and forced contact produces only injury.
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