井 → 節
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 60: Limitation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
避虵東走，反入虎口。制於爪牙，骨為灰土。
Fleeing the serpent, he runs east; but stumbles into the tiger's jaws. Seized by fang and claw; bones ground to ash and dust.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well offers a fixed refuge — but this figure flees one danger only to stumble into a worse one. Running east to escape a snake, one falls straight into a tiger's mouth. Seized by claws and fangs, one's bones are ground to dust. The proverb 'fleeing the snake, entering the tiger' captures the desperation of someone who panics without assessing the full landscape of threats. From The Well to Limitation, water rests upon the lake, establishing boundaries. The well's failure to provide proper limits — to contain and channel — results in Jie's harshest lesson: those who do not accept necessary constraints are devoured by the very forces they tried to evade.
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