需 → 坎
Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初九 需于郊。利用恆。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Waiting in the meadow. It furthers one to abide in what endures. No blame.
Line 3
九三 需于泥。致寇至。
Nine in the third place means: Waiting in the mud Brings about the arrival of the enemy.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鑿井求玉，非卞氏寶。名困身辱，勞無所得。
Fishing for a needle on the sea floor — wasting all one's time. Hands wounded, fingers split — not a single thing recovered.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds above heaven plunge into doubled water — the Abysmal upon the Abysmal. The original verse reads: 'Drilling a well in search of jade — this is not Bian He's treasure. Fame is trapped, the body disgraced; labor yields nothing.' Bian He thrice presented his uncut jade to kings who punished him for fraud, losing both feet before the stone was finally recognized as priceless. Here the seeker digs in the wrong medium entirely: jade is not found in wells. The allusion inverts the Sui-He treasures motif — effort misdirected not once but systematically. From Waiting to The Abysmal, patience falls into a pit: the nourishing waters become the abyss one drowns in when seeking treasure where none exists.
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