井 → 蒙
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
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.
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
跛躄難步，遲不及舍。露宿澤陂，亡其襦袴。
Lame and crippled, struggling to walk; too slow to reach the inn. Sleeping in the open by the marsh bank, he loses his jacket and trousers.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well offers sustenance to all who can reach it — but a lame man cannot walk far enough. Hobbling and stumbling, too slow to reach the inn before dark, he sleeps exposed by a marshland bank and loses his jacket and trousers. The image is one of abject vulnerability: a person whose disability prevents him from accessing the help that exists. The well is there, but he cannot draw from it. From The Well to Youthful Folly, the spring that emerges below the mountain runs cold and aimless. What the well structures with windlass and bucket, Meng leaves to stumble upon by chance — and the unprepared traveler pays the price.
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