井 → 小畜
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 6).
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 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
東行述職，征討不服。侵齊伐陳，衘璧為臣，大得意還。
Marching east to fulfill his duties, he campaigns to subdue the defiant. Invading Qi, striking Chen; bearing jade and submitting as vassal. In great triumph he returns.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well serves as a fixed center, and from it the ruler dispatches envoys eastward to perform inspections. He campaigns against the disobedient, invading Qi and attacking Chen, until the defeated submit with jade discs clenched in their teeth as tokens of vassalage. The expedition returns triumphant. 'Presenting jade in the mouth' (衔璧) is the ritual gesture of total submission. From The Well to Small Taming, wind moves above heaven — a gentle but persistent force. The well's steady resource funds the campaign, and the wind's soft accumulation of virtue achieves what brute force alone cannot: lasting compliance through cultivated moral authority.
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