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Hexagram 18 — Kan, The Abysmal
Chronological no. 18 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 29 · 坎
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the middle son
the middle son
Water comes and comes again: the image of the abysmal doubled. Danger repeats, wave after wave, never offering complete respite — yet water itself, in its constant motion, always finds its own level. This is the figure of repeated trial that forges constancy. Thus the noble one steadily practices virtue and teaches the ways of things: facing danger that returns, only repeated practice, in turn, builds mastery.
Navigating water that will not be sounded. Certain depths can never be fully measured in advance — one can only learn to move within them with what means are at hand, never claiming to master them entirely. This line says that true skill before danger is not to eliminate it, but to learn to swim in it.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, emptiness closes over: what was still an opening begins to fill.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, fullness hollows out: the force that governed the figure from its center is about to invert.
At the summit, emptiness reaches its fullest extent and closes: the furthest opening turns toward its opposite.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
Eight 12×12 Jacquard patterns are generated from this hexagram, one for each admissible family of the system. Each has its own page: cell, tiling, recolourings and data.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
17 — Zhun, Difficulty at the Beginning · 19 — Jie, Limitation
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☵ Kan): 16 — Bi, Holding Together · 17 — Zhun, Difficulty at the Beginning · 19 — Jie, Limitation · 20 — Jian, Obstruction · 21 — Ji Ji, After Completion · 22 — Jing, The Well · 23 — Xu, Waiting
Same lower trigram (☵ Kan): 2 — Shi, The Army · 10 — Jie, Deliverance · 26 — Kun, Oppression · 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly · 42 — Wei Ji, Before Completion · 50 — Huan, Dispersion · 58 — Song, Conflict
