兌 → 井
Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4).
Line 1
初九 和兌吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Contented joyousness. Good fortune.
Line 3
六三 來兌凶。
Six in the third place means: Coming joyousness. Misfortune.
Line 4
九四 商兌未寧。介疾有喜。
Nine in the fourth place means: Joyousness that is weighed is not at peace. After ridding himself of mistakes a man has joy.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
闇昧不明，耳聾不聰。陷入深淵，滅頂憂凶。
Dark and dim, without clarity; ears deaf and unhearing. Falling into the deep abyss, head submerged in grievous misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Paired lakes descend into wind beneath water — The Well, the deep structure that nourishes from below. Yet here all is darkness and confusion: sight is dim, hearing is deaf. One falls into the deep abyss, submerged beneath the water, facing mortal danger. The well's virtue is accessibility, but this well has become a death trap — its waters too deep, its walls too slippery. From The Joyous to The Well, the verse inverts the hexagram's promise. The well should sustain the community, but when one falls in rather than draws from it, nourishment becomes drowning. Joy that loses its footing plunges into the very source it sought to draw upon.
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