渙 → 坎
Hexagram 59: Dispersion → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
Line 6
上九 渙其血。去逖出。无咎。
Nine at the top means: He dissolves his blood. Departing, keeping at a distance, going out, Is without blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
子畏於匡，困於陳蔡。明德不危，竟免厄害。
The Master was threatened at Kuang, besieged at Chen and Cai. Bright virtue does not court danger; in the end he escaped all harm.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over water scatters the sage into danger, but his virtue holds firm. The verse names Confucius directly: besieged at Kuang, where villagers mistook him for the bandit Yang Hu, and stranded between Chen and Cai, where his provisions ran out for seven days. Yet 'bright virtue is not endangered' — despite mortal peril, the sage's moral luminosity protected him, and he ultimately escaped unharmed. Doubled water creates the image of the Abysmal — danger upon danger, peril that teaches through repetition. From Dispersion to the Abysmal, scattering into hostile territory becomes the crucible of character. Confucius emerged from both Kuang and the Chen-Cai crisis not by fighting but by refusing to let danger scatter his inner coherence.
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