井 → 渙
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 59: Dispersion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 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 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
原缺
The well overflows, water flowing east — dissolving in four directions, moistening barren mounds. Not knowing where the return path lies — following waves, drifting with the current, yielding to rise and fall.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood — but here the original verse is lost. The modern rewrite imagines well water overflowing and drifting eastward, dispersing in four directions to moisten barren hills, with no way home, carried by waves wherever they lead. Though the original text cannot be analyzed, the pairing of Well and Dispersion (wind above water) speaks to what happens when the well's contained sustenance loses all structure. From The Well to Dispersion, wind scatters water across the surface. The well's walls once held the water in useful form; without them, nourishment dissipates into aimless wandering, and what should have sustained a community evaporates into the landscape.
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