Upper Trigram
坎 Kǎn
Water — Abysmal
Lower Trigram
兌 Duì
Lake — Joyous
Classical Texts
The Judgment
Success. Galling limitation must not be persevered in. Limitations are troublesome, but they are effective. Living economically in normal times prepares for times of want. Being sparing saves from humiliation. Limitations are also indispensable in the regulation of world conditions—in nature there are fixed limits for summer and winter, day and night, and these limits give the year its meaning. But in limitation, observe due measure. Galling limitations imposed on one's own nature would be injurious. If you go too far in imposing limitations on others, they will rebel. Set limits even upon limitation.
The Lines
Line 1
Not going out of the door and the courtyard is without blame. When confronted by insurmountable limitations, know where to stop. If you rightly understand this and do not go beyond the limits set for you, you accumulate energy that enables you, when the proper time comes, to act with great force. Discretion is of prime importance in preparing the way for momentous things.
Line 2
Not going out of the gate and the courtyard brings misfortune. When the time for action has come, the moment must be quickly seized. Just as water first collects in a lake without flowing out, yet is certain to find an outlet when the lake is full, so it is in the life of a person. It is good to hesitate so long as the time for action has not come—but no longer. Once obstacles to action have been removed, anxious hesitation is a mistake bound to bring disaster because you miss your opportunity.
Line 3
He who knows no limitation will have cause to lament. No blame. If bent only on pleasures and enjoyment, it is easy to lose your sense of necessary limits. If you give yourself over to extravagance, you will suffer the consequences with accompanying regret. Do not seek to lay the blame on others. Only when you realize that mistakes are of your own making will disagreeable experiences free you of errors.
Line 4
Contented limitation. Success. Every limitation has its value, but a limitation that requires persistent effort entails a cost of too much energy. When limitation is natural—like water flowing only downhill—it necessarily leads to success, for it means saving energy. The energy that otherwise would be consumed in a vain struggle is applied wholly to the matter in hand.
Line 5
Sweet limitation brings good fortune. Going brings esteem. If we seek to impose restrictions on others only while evading them ourselves, these restrictions will always be resented and provoke resistance. But if a person in a leading position applies limitation first to themselves, demanding little from those associated with them, and with modest means manages to achieve something, good fortune is the result. Such an example meets with emulation.
Line 6
Galling limitation. Persistence brings misfortune. Remorse disappears. If one is too severe in setting up restrictions, people will not endure them. The more consistent such severity, the worse it is—a reaction is unavoidable. On the other hand, although ruthless severity is not to be applied persistently, there may be times when it is the only means of safeguarding against guilt and remorse. In such situations, ruthlessness toward oneself is the only means of saving one's soul.
Yilin: Forest of Changes
From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 60 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.
海為水王，聰聖且明。百流歸德，无有叛逆，常饒優足。
The sea is king of waters, perceptive, sagely, and wise. A hundred streams return in homage; none rebel or resist. Ever abundant, ever ample.
Read full commentary ↓
Water over lake doubled — Limitation reflecting itself. The sea is king of all waters, wise and perceptive in its rule. A hundred rivers return to its virtue, and none rebels or defects; abundance and sufficiency are constant. The verse celebrates the source hexagram's own principle in its purest form: the sea does not chase the rivers — it simply occupies the lowest point, and all waters flow toward it naturally. Its sovereignty is the sovereignty of position, not force. From Limitation to Limitation, the identity transformation affirms that true regulation needs no external enforcement. When the measure itself is just, compliance is spontaneous. The sea's '聰聖且明' — wise, sagacious, and clear — describes the ideal of governance as a gravitational field that orders the world simply by being what it is.
中文注释
澤上有水，節之自映。海為水王——百川之宗，聰聖且明。百流歸德，無有叛逆，常饒優足。海不逐川而川自歸——居最低處而萬水朝宗，其主權在於位勢而非武力。節至節，同卦自返——真正的制度無須外在強制。度量本身公正，則順從自發。海之智慧、聖明、清澈，乃治理之理想：如引力場，以自身之存在即整合天下。制數度、議德行——節之本義在此達到圓滿之自我詮釋。
Related Hexagrams
Same upper trigram: Water (坎)
Same lower trigram: Lake (兌)