Upper trigram
☵
Water (Kan) above
Danger and depth.
FamilyMiddle son
ElementWater
Hexagram 29 of 64
I Ching hexagram 29 ☵☵ The Abysmal
I Ching hexagram 29, The Abysmal, is water above, water below. In brief: repeated danger; keep your footing. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 2 and 5 and its broken lines in 1, 3, 4 and 6.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚋⚊⚋⚋⚊⚋ 010010 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Water over Water Kan ☵ / Kan ☵
- Every line changed
- № 30 The Clinging
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 118 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☵
Water (Kan) below
Danger and depth.
FamilyMiddle son
ElementWater
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 29
The Judgement
Danger repeated, like water pouring through one gorge after another. Getting through depends on keeping faith and staying consistent inside, the way water keeps flowing.
The Image
Water flowing on and on, filling every hollow before moving forward. The lesson is steadiness in virtue and constant practice.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 29 in James Legge’s translation
“Khan, here repeated, shows the possession of sincerity, through which the mind is penetrating. Action (in accordance with this) will be of high value.”
“(The representation of) water flowing on continuously forms the repeated Khan. The superior man, in accordance with this, maintains constantly the virtue (of his heart) and (the integrity of) his conduct, and practises the business of instruction.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, divided, shows its subject in the double defile, and (yet) entering a cavern within it. There will be evil.
- Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows its subject in all the peril of the defile. He will, however, get a little (of the deliverance) that he seeks.
- Line 3 The third line, divided, shows its subject, whether he comes or goes (=descends or ascends), confronted by a defile. All is peril to him and unrest. (His endeavours) will lead him into the cavern of the pit. There should be no action (in such a case).
- Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows its subject (at a feast), with (simply) a bottle of spirits, and a subsidiary basket of rice, while (the cups and bowls) are (only) of earthenware. He introduces his important lessons (as his ruler’s) intelligence admits. There will in the end be no error.
- Line 5 The fifth line, undivided, shows the water of the defile not yet full, (so that it might flow away); but order will (soon) be brought about. There will be no error.
- Line 6 · top The topmost line, divided, shows its subject bound with cords of three strands or two strands, and placed in the thicket of thorns. But in three years he does not learn the course for him to pursue. There will be evil.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 118 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
The Abysmal for a decision
You are in a difficult passage. Do not panic or freeze; keep moving carefully and sincerely, one obstacle at a time.
I Ching 29 in love and relationships
A testing period that repeats itself. Consistency and honesty are what carry people through it.
Hexagram 29 at work
Recurring problems and risk. Hold to your methods, keep practicing and avoid sudden desperate moves.
The six lines of hexagram 29
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yang yin yin yang yin — what each position means.
2 yang and 4 yin lines. Three of the six stand in their proper place, and none of the three pairs answer each other.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Water below — danger and depth — is the private, inner side of hexagram 29.
Water above — danger and depth — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Both trigrams are Water, so nothing in the figure pulls against anything else. That makes the reading unusually single-minded — and unusually short of internal correction.
Read as a family
The middle son sits both above and below. The same figure doubled — the purest form of what the trigram describes.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 29
Nuclear hexagram
27 · Nourishment
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Zhen (Thunder) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Gen (Mountain) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
30 · The Clinging
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Water over Water becomes Fire over Fire.
Inverse hexagram
Symmetrical
Hexagram 29 reads the same upside down: Water over Water, turned over, is still Water over Water. Only eight of the sixty-four do.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Water above, Water below.
Water over Water: danger and depth meeting danger and depth.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 29: The Abysmal.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/29/
For Wikipedia
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