未濟 → 蒙

Commentary

Fire above water, nothing in its proper place. The north wind hides ice in the ridges — a classical allusion to the Shijing ode on seasonal storage — and the gentleman's heart grows heavy. Grain runs short, and spectral forces rattle the door. The 'Northern Ridge stores ice' (北陸藏冰) comes from Zhou ritual practice: ice cut in winter was stored for summer use, a sign of orderly governance. Here it signals deprivation, not foresight — the cold has come, provisions are exhausted, and ghostly presences gather at the threshold. From Before Completion to Youthful Folly, the unresolved fire-over-water descends into a spring trapped beneath a mountain. What is needed is clarity, but what arrives is bewilderment — hunger, cold, and dread clouding the mind like water obscured beneath stone.