巽 → 井
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
Line 6
上九 巽在牀下。喪其資斧。貞凶。
Nine at the top means: Penetration under the bed. He loses his property and his ax. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
山水暴怒，壞梁折柱。稽難行旅，留連愁苦。
The suspension bridge's rope snaps; rapids churn in the valley below. The path ahead is severed — the wind sounds like weeping.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into water over wind: the Gentle becomes The Well. The original verse reads: 'Mountain floods rage with fury, breaking beams and snapping pillars. Travelers are delayed and stranded, lingering in sorrow and suffering.' The verse describes infrastructure destroyed by natural disaster — bridges broken, roads impassable, journeys halted. The traveler is trapped not by enemies but by sheer elemental violence. From The Gentle to The Well, wood below draws water upward to nourish the community. But here the well's mechanism is reversed: water descends in destructive torrents rather than being drawn up in orderly service. The well that should sustain travelers instead floods the path. When water overwhelms its channels, the source of life becomes the source of ruin.
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