井 → 豐
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 55: Abundance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
商風數起，天下昏晦。旱魃為虐，九土兵作。
The autumn wind rises again and again; the world falls into darkness and gloom. The drought demon wreaks its havoc; across the nine lands, soldiers march.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well sustains life — but autumn winds blow repeatedly, and the world falls into twilight. The drought demon ravages the land, and soldiers rise across all nine territories. The 'merchant wind' (商風) is the west wind of autumn, associated with metal and killing energy. When it blows too often, the natural order is shattered: drought parches the earth, and war erupts everywhere. From The Well to Abundance, thunder and lightning should bring fullness and clarity. Yet this verse inverts Feng's promise: the well dries under drought, the abundance turns to devastation, and the thunder that should bring rain brings only armies. Fullness without water is emptiness with a louder voice.
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