艮 → 坎
Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 艮其腓。不拯其隨。其心不快。
Six in the second place means: Keeping his calves still. He cannot rescue him whom he follows. His heart is not glad.
Line 3
九三 艮其限。列其夤。厲熏心。
Nine in the third place means: Keeping his hips still. Making his sacrum stiff. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.
Line 5
六五 艮其輔。言有序。悔亡。
Six in the fifth place means: Keeping his jaws still. The words have order. Remorse disappears.
Line 6
上九 敦艮吉。
Nine at the top means: Noblehearted keeping still. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
消金猒兵，雷車不行，民安其鄉。
Weapons melted down, arms despised; the thunder-chariots do not march. The people dwell at peace in their homeland.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Twin mountains stand still as weapons are melted down and soldiers stand at ease. Thunder chariots no longer roll; the people live peacefully in their villages. The verse describes the aftermath of pacification: bronze is smelted back from blades, war drums go silent, and the common folk return to agrarian life. From Keeping Still to the Abysmal, doubled mountain yields to doubled water — danger upon danger. Yet the verse presents the hopeful inversion: stillness has already neutralized the peril. The mountain's restraint dissolved the threat before it could compound. When arms are consumed and war machines dismantled, the double danger of the Abysmal is preempted. Peace is achieved not by crossing the abyss but by draining it of its power.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store