Six Doors · No. 29

第29卦坎 Kǎn · The Abyss

Essence: Abyss upon abyss; sincerity flows where force sinks.

Judgment

Danger inside danger—terrain you cannot route around, only through. Water shows the method: do not resist, do not linger; fill each hollow completely, then keep moving. Hold to what is true in you, and the action itself earns respect—danger, practiced enough, becomes competence.

Sixty-four hexagrams, six doors each

Trigrams

Upper

坎 Water

water

Lower

坎 Water

water

III

The lines

Line 1Slipping into the pit within the pit: growing accustomed to danger is how one gets lost in it.
Line 2Hemmed in on every side, aim for small gains only; incremental steps are all this ground allows.
Line 3Danger ahead, danger behind, footing treacherous—any move digs you deeper, so make none.
Line 4A jug of wine and a bowl of rice passed through the window in plain earthenware: in a crisis, unceremonious sincerity is the only protocol that matters.
Line 5The water rises only to the rim, never overflowing—by not attempting too much, you find the pit nearly level and the way out near.
Line 6Bound with cords and hedged in thorns for three long years: this is the cost of having lost the way in the midst of danger.

All the doors

Every single-step transition available from where you stand.

Inverse (綜) · Opposite (錯)

Inverse (綜)

Opposite (錯)

Written on this

Hexagram 29, Kǎn (The Abyss): The Repeated Pit and How to Read It

A close reading of Hexagram 29, Kǎn, the Abyss: doubled water, the repeated pit called xí kǎn, its six lines, and how to read danger when the figure falls to you.

6 min read