Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
The Abysmal
Hexagram 29 of the Yi Jing · 坎 Kǎn
The figure
Water doubled: the solid line held between two broken ones, repeated. Depth, the abyss, the trial where you cannot see the bottom.
What this figure illuminates
The Abysmal lights up the hard passages where you move without visibility. Water doesn't fight the hollow: it fills it and keeps going. Constancy is worth more than spectacular effort.
Facing a decision in uncertainty, the figure invites not forcing a way out but finding the right, repeated gesture — “what is the simple, faithful action that carries me through where I cannot yet see?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
The abyss, doubled. With sincerity the heart wins through; what you carry within holds firm, and to act from it has worth.
The Image
Water flows on and on, filling each hollow before it moves ahead. Seeing this, the noble person keeps their virtue constant and teaches by steady repetition.
The Six Lines
- First line
Deep in the doubled pit, and sinking into a hollow within it. Losing the way in danger: misfortune.
- Second line
Ringed by peril on every side. Do not attempt the great leap out — seek only the small gain, and you get it.
- Third line
Whichever way you turn, the pit is before you. This is no time to act — do not plunge deeper.
- Fourth line
In the depth, a bare offering — a jug, a bowl of rice, passed simply through the window. Sincerity stripped to essentials: in the end, no error.
- Fifth line
The water rises only to the brim, not over it — the danger nearly past, not to be forced. Keep to the level, and no error.
- Sixth line
Bound with cords and set among thorns — for three years you find no way out. Misfortune held long.
Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).
A question to keep
In uncertainty, what steady gesture carries you forward?
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